Abstract:To know the pathogens causing maize ear rot in southwestern Henan, the maize ear rot samples were collected from 6 counties in Nanyang City in September, 2009. Pathogens were isolated from the samples and purified with single spore isolation. The pathogens were identified based on results of pathogenicity tests, morphological observations and molecular analyses. Seventy isolates were identified as members of Fusarium proliferatum, contributing about 66.7% of the Fusarium isolates obtained and indicating that F.proliferatum was a predominant Fusarium species causing maize ear rot in Nanyang. Two phylogenetic trees were established based on rDNA-ITS (internal transcribed spacer) and tef (translation elongation factor 1α gene) sequences, respectively. Three representative isolates Fp1, Fp2 and Fp3 clustered with GenBank-derived F.proliferatum isolates at 89% bootstrap level for rDNA-ITS sequences, and 91% for tef gene sequences. F.proliferatum could grow at temperatures of 13-34 ℃ with 28 ℃ as the optimum. Growth peaks occurred at pH 5.0 and pH 6.0, respectively. Vegetative growth of F.proliferatum was found to be significantly influenced by nitrogen sources compared to carbon sources.