Verticillium Wilt of Okra Caused by Kleb. in China.

Okra ( (L.) Moench) has gained more popularity as an economically significant plant for its nutritional and medicinal value, especially in China. During 2014-2016, the root disease of okra was discovered in four okra commercial fields surveyed in China. A fungul was isolated from the infected tissues, and was identified by based on morphological characteristics. Pathogenicity test demonstrated that the fungus was pathogenic on okra, and fulfilled Koch's postulates. The analysis of three sequences revealed 99-100% identity with the reported strain in GenBank. Neighbor-joining analysis of the gene sequences revealed that the representative isolates were clustered with . To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of Verticillium wilt of okra in China.