Amal Fazliarab - Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran
Reza Farokhinezhad - Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran
Mehdi Mehrabi-Koushki - Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz
Khosro Mehdikhanlou - Plant Production & Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran
Koroush Taherkhani - Iranian Sugarcane Research and Training Institute (ISCRTI), Ahvaz, Iran

Whip smut, which is caused by Sporisorium scitamineum, is an important disease in areas where sugarcane is cultivated in Iran, particularly in the Khuzestan province. The pathogen significantly reduces sugarcane yield, and the use of resistant cultivars is the most cost-effective strategy for managing the disease. The present study characterized the S. scitamineum strains collected from five commercial sugarcane cultivars (CP۶۹-۱۰۶۲, CP۵۷-۶۱۴, CP۴۸-۱۰۳, SP۷۰-۱۱۴۳, and NCo۳۱۰) based on their morphological and phylogenetic features. The sporidial cultures of the strains appeared in two growth forms: cottony colony and yeast-like. All strains were found to be identical based on the DNA sequences of ITS, COX۳, GAPDH, and EF۱α regions, and revealed that all strains were identical (۱۰۰%) to the reference strain of S. scitamineum. The disease incidence of the cultivars varied from ۵ to ۴۳% during two consecutive years. Statistical analysis of the growth rates of the strains indicated significant differences. Combined analysis of variance (ANOVA) suggested that the effects of year, strain, cultivar, and the interaction effect of strain ´ cultivar were significant at a ۱% probability level. Our results suggest that IRK۳۱۰ was the most virulent among all cultivars, with different pathogenicity percentages, while the strain IRK۷۰ had the lowest level of virulence among all strains. Among the tested cultivars, SP۷۰-۱۱۴۳ and CP۵۷-۶۱۴ showed high resistance to smut. In this research, teliospore populations of whip smut were identified, and disease reactions of the cultivars were assayed. Screening and selecting smut-resistant cultivars can help reduce disease damage in cultivated areas and can serve as a basis for further research on plant disease management.

Disease management, Genetic diversity, Housekeeping genes, Whip smut