Characterisation of alternaria fruit blight, from pistachios (Pistacia vera L.) grown in the South-Eastern Anatolia Region

The commercial value of pistachios is high and mostly production is made in South-Eastern Anatolia Region However, many pathogens cause disease with these significant nuts were determined. In this thesis, Alternaria spp. were isolated from the nuts which had Alternaria blight symptoms from the Southeast Anatolia region. It was aimed to determine the pathogenic characterization and mating type distribution of Alternaria spp. isolated from pistachio nuts. In the Southeast Anatolia region, disease starts in May with increase of temperatures and continues until harvest in September. Approximately 51 % of the diseased nuts collected from this region were infected with Alternaria spp. Eighty-three Alternaria isolates were inoculated on cv. Ohadi. Then, the pathogenicity analyses were conducted and all the isolates were determined as pathogenic. These isolates were used to define the Mating types. It was determined that MAT1.1 and MAT1.2 ratios were close to 1/1. There are no detailed studies on Alternaria blight of pistachios in Turkey. So the data obtained through this thesis will help further studies in the area. Key Words: Pistachios, Alternaria spp., pathogenicity, PCR-MAT.