Identification of fungal pathogen associated with fruit rot disease in ananas comosus

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is one of the most important fruit crops in Malaysia. The pineapple is originated from South America and now the crop cultivated worldwide. This crop is also subjected to many diseases either infecting the crown, root or fruit. The most severe or economically important disease is when the disease infects the fruit part, so it will cause total losses to the farmers. Fruit rot of pineapple is the disease that infects the fruit. Fruit rot is suspected to be initiated by Fusarium spp. Fruit rot disease symptom or symptom like disease was observed to occur at Ladang 15, University Putra Malaysia in the first planting season. However, the actual causative agent is yet being identified. In view of this, this research was conducted to identify the causal agent of the fruit rot disease in pineapple. The infected field samples were collected from Ladang 15, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor and commercial pineapple orchard in Klang, Selangor. Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Fusarium selective media were used for the isolation process. The suspected colony of fungi was isolated and identified morphologically. The pathogenicity test was conducted for the confirmation of suspected causal agent. One of the cultured fungi gives the same symptom as the samples that were taken from the field. Lastly, the spores‟ pathogens were observed under microscope to identify the characteristics thus the pathogen have been identified as Fusarium.

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