Natural Occurrence of Fusarium species in Maize Kernels at Gholestan Province in Northern Iran

Fusarium species in 41 samples of maize, which related to pre-harvest time, harvest time, enter to silo and exit from silo that collected in 2004 from North of Iran at Gholestan province were isolated and identified. For isolation the Fusarium species, maize were cultured onto Nash-snyder agar, then preparing a single spore and sub cultured them onto Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Spezieller Nahrstoffarmer Agar (SNA) mediums. The most prevalent Fusarium species isolated were Fusarium verticillioides, followed by F. proliferatum, F. oxysporum, F. culmorum, F. solani, F. equiseti and F. poae. The results of this work showed high incidence of F. verticillioides and F. proliferatum in maize kernels that was in accordance with the other studies in Iran and other countries.