Fusarium clavum causes sugar beet seedling root rot in Wyoming, USA

Seedling rot in sugar beet was observed at Snyder Farms, Wyoming, USA, in April 2022. The diseased seedlings exhibited water-soaked brown to blackish lesions in hypocotyls with poor root systems. Four fungal isolates were retrieved from the diseased samples, and their morphological features were found to be identical to those of previously reported Fusarium species. Artificial inoculation with isolates developed similar symptoms to those observed in the field samples. Based on morphological characteristics, pathogenicity assays, sequence homologies of the internal transcribed spacer, translation elongation factor (tef1 alpha), largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (rpb2), beta-tubulin (beta-tub), and multilocus phylogenic analyses with tef1 alpha and rpb2, the causal agent was identified as Fusarium clavum (F. incarnatum-equiseti species complex 5). This is the first worldwide report of sugar beet seedling rot caused by F. clavum, detected in Wyoming, USA. This finding will help to formulate effective management practices to manage the pathogen and prevent its widespread occurrence.