Morphological and Molecular Identification of Common Pathogenic Fungi in White Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) Production Units in Ardabil Province

Due to the importance of white button mushroom as a source of food and protein, the identification and control of its diseases are taken into consideration in the world. In Ardabil province, there are several mushroom production units. In this research, infected samples were collected from Ardabil, Namin, Sarein, Meshginshahr and Pars-Abad mushroom farms. After isolation and purification of fungicolous fungi from infected mushrooms and casing soil, macroscopic and microscopic features including colony characteristics on MEA/PDA and conidium/conidiophore size and shape were used for tentative-identification of isolates using valid keys. The results were confirmed by sequencing of ITS-rDNA region. In this study, among 72 fungal isolates, Lecanicillium fungicola, causal agent of dry buble, Trichoderma harizianum and T. virense causal agents of green mold, Mycogone perniciosa causal agent of wet bubble, and Cladobotrium mycophilum causal agent of cobweb were identified with 49, 18, 14, 14 and 5% frequency, respectively. This is the first study on mycopathogens of button mushroom in Ardabil province. The results may help to prevent and control the mycopathogenic fungi in button mushroom production units after additional research.