Morphocultural and Genetic Characterization of Putative Fusarium Isolates from Lakatan Plantations in General Santos City

Panama disease, also known as Fusarium wilt, is primarily caused by a pathogen called Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), specifically the VCG 01213/16 clonal population known as tropical race 4 (TR4). This destructive pathogen is suspected to be causing significant infestation in lakatan banana farms in General Santos City. Despite numerous reports, the identification and characterization of Fusarium wilt in General Santos City have not been officially confirmed. In this study, a polyphasic approach was employed to accurately verify suspected or potential Fusarium-infected farms in selected Barangays of General Santos City. The fungal pathogen was isolated from suspected Foc- infected Lakatan plants, cultured on PDA media supplemented with 5 mg/L of streptomycin, and subjected to morphological and molecular characterization, and phylogenetic analysis. The results of this study revealed the presence of molecularly confirmed Foc pathogens in lakatan farms located in Barangay Tinagacan, while putative Foc isolates were observed in isolates collected from Lakatan plantations in barangay Conel. 3 Foc isolates were subjected to Blast analysis to compare them with similar sequences available in GenBank. Comparison of the ITSI region revealed a 90.60% resemblance to a Fusarium species for isolate TN2, a 99.80% resemblance to Fusarium oxysporum f. cubense strain with accession number AY864891.1 for N4, and a 99.40% resemblance to a Fusarium species isolated from Danzhou Hainan, China for N7. ITS4 sequences showed a 93.84%, 99.80%, and 99.79% match to Fusarium oxysporum, respectively. Confirmed and potential cases of Fusarium wilt in General Santos City was map using QGIS.