Isolation And Identification of Common Fungal Pathogens Invading Sweet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) Sold in Choba Market, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

This research was aimed at isolating and identifying common fungal pathogens invading sweet potato tubers. Tubers were collected from Choba Market, Port Harcourt in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. Fungal isolates were collected and morphologically identified. The Deoxyribonucleic acid of the most common fungal isolates, SP-1 and SP-2 were molecularly characterized using Internal Transcribed Spacer 4 and 5 molecular markers. The isolates Deoxyribonucleic acid sequence was aligned using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool for Nucleotide 2.8.0 version of National Centre for Biotechnology Information database. The molecular weight of the Deoxyribonucleic acid of the isolates were 573 base pairs for Lasiodiplodia theobromae and 521 base pairs for Pichia kudriavzevii. Based on sequence similarity, it was observed that the sweet potato tubers isolate SP-1 was 99.25% identical to Lasiodiplodia theobromae and SP-2 was 99.70% identical to Pichia kudriavzevii. These findings showed that Lasiodiplodia theobromae and Pichia kudriavzevii are some of the causal fungal pathogens invading sweet potato tubers. It is projected that this result will provide information for disease control approach for improving the post-harvest losses of sweet potato. This study will improve available information and aid in reducing the deteriorating activities of fungi invading Sweet Potato tubers.