ABSTRACT
Objective To isolation and identify the pathogen of stem blight of Malvaceae.Methods The stems were collected from stem blight-diseased plants (J) and healthy ones (W) of Abelmoschus manihot (L.) Medic.in Yixing City of Jiangsu Province then cultured to isolate newborn mycelium.The pathogen isolated but unidentified were inoculated in stems of healthy plants of Abelmoschus manihot ( L.) Medic.and pathogenicity was verified.Finally, the pathogenic specie( s) was or were identified by morphological characteristic, rDNA-ITS analysis and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.Results The same fungus were excluded which were the same species in J and W, the three fungus of J2, J5 and J6 were acquired.J5 was preliminarily identified to have pathogenicity and it was Fusarium equiseti under the microscope.The genome DNA of J5 was amplified to a length of 524bp, and homology highly with Fusarium equiseti (100%).Conclusion The pathogen was identified as Fusarium equiseti.