*3.1. Isolation, Characterization, and Identification of the Causative Agent of Charcoal Rot*

Representative isolates from 50 different plants developed typical morphological characteristics of *M. phaseolina*. The fungal colonies were initially whitish grayish-dark brown in color on PDA medium (Figure 1a). After 6 days, semi-compressed mycelium was observed on the culture plate with microsclerotia embedded within the hyphae and absorbed into the agar. The aggregation of hyphae formed jet-black microsclerotia with a size of 74 × 110 μm (Figure 1b).

Amplification of 5.8S rDNA gene region showed a product of 601 bp, which presented 100% identity with *M. phaseolina* (ID: KF951698) in the Gen Bank nucleotide database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, accessed on 15 February 2021). This sequence was deposited in the same database, with the accession number MW585378.

**Figure 1.** Cultural and morphological characteristics of *M. phaseolina.* (**a**) Colony on the agar plate; (**b**) microsclerotia (100×).
