Amirreza Amirmijani

This study was undertaken to investigate on fungal species associated with dried fruits of Morus alba. During 2016, a total of 25 samples, were collected from common markets in south of Kerman province, Jiroft. After surface disinfestation with 0.5% NaOCl, small fragments of dried fruits were placed onto potato dextrose agar (PDA). Fungal isolates were purified by single spore method. Morphological characteristics such as colony color, shape and size of hypha, conidia and conidiophores were recorded. In addition, for confirmation of morphological identification, genomic DNA was extracted from mycelia by the chelex method. The rDNA ITS region (including 5.8S rDNA) was amplified by a polymerase chain reaction using ITS1 and ITS4 primers. Based on morphological and molecular data, five species including Alternaria alternata, A. tenuissima, Arthrinium arundinis, Cladosporium cladosporioides and Fusarium oxysporum were identified. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of fungi associated with dried fruits of white mulberry in Iran.