Fungal Root Rots of Sugar Beets: A Review of Common Causal Agents and Management Strategies

Sugar beet is an important sugar crop that supplies approximately 35% of the sugar in the world. Sugar beet root rot, caused by fungal pathogens, significantly reduces yield, juice purity, and sugar concentration. Studies have revealed that sugar beet root rot (SBRR) is mainly caused by soil fungi like Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotium rolfsii, Fusarium spp., Macrophomina phaseolina, Aphanomyces cochlioides and Phytophthora spp. Given the wide host spectrum, the great influence by environmental conditions, and the resistant structures of fungi causing SBRR, the management of this disease which begins with invisible symptoms remains a difficult task. Therefore, further studies are needed to correctly identify the causative agents and to understand more about conditions and factors favoring disease incidence. This will greatly contribute to designing and adopting appropriate control methods to manage this economically important disease. Hence, this review concentrates on key symptoms and current advances in morphological and molecular means used for the precise designation of the fungus associated with SBRR, and control procedures designed to manage this disease in recent years. This work also exposes the new alternative approaches exploited to manage root rot in the context of sustainable sugar beet production.