fertility status and mating type distribution of cryphonectria parasitica causal agent of chestnut blight in guilan province

to evaluate fertility status and mating type distribution of cryphonectria parasitica, causal agent of chestnut blight in guilan province, four sites in two main growing regions of: shaft (visrud, taleghan and babarekab), and rezvanshahr (doran) were investigated. during the study, fifty four isolates of c. parasitica were examined. c. parasitica isolates were crossed with each of the two mating type tester strains m1115 (mat-2) and m1297 (mat-1) of c. parasitica on autoclaved pieces of castanea sativa shoots. according to the results, one of mat idiomorphs (mat-1 or mat-2) were identified in most of the isolates (72.3%). a 20.4% of isolates were not able to produce perithecia with mating type testers. moreover, 7.4% of isolates were sexually compatible with both mating types and produced perithecia.