Evaluation of Pathological Variability by Screening of Verticillium Fungicola Isolates with Different Mushrooms Species

Verticillium fungicola is a serious pathogen causing dry bubble disease in button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). Present investigations were carried out on both host and pathogen by covering an aspect of variability in isolates of pathogen in terms of pathogenicity. The V. fungicola isolates collected from different geographical regions of Haryana, isolated, purified on PDA medium and coded as MHS (Hisar), BFT (Fatehabad), NJN (Jind), RHT (Rohtak), TPN (Panipat), BSN (Sonipat), FDB (Fridabad) and SKK (Kurukshetra) and pathogenicity was proved on host A. bisporus. Regarding pathogenic variability among the isolates, during screening of the isolates, only BSN, TPN, FDB, SKK and RHT showed disease symptoms on fruiting bodies of all the strains of A. bisporous included in the study and other mushroom spp. i.e. A. bitorquis, Pleurotus sajor-caju and P. florida, except A. bisporous strain U-3 and Calocybe indica where no disease appeared