Introduction Jute is a natural fibers yielding annual herbaceous plant in the world 1, 2 . It is an attractive natural fiber for use as reinforcement, low cost renewable textile fibers and is obtaining from the bast/ phloem layer of the stem from mature jute plant. Jute plays a vital role in the economy of Bangladesh. Now-a- days, Jute cultivation is alleged to be a losing concern because of fall of business in the International market signaling a great threat to the economy of Bangladesh 3 . Annually approximately 8 lakh metric tons of raw Jute fiber are produced from nearly 6 lakh hectares of land that offers cash income to 40 lakh farmers. About 8 lakh people are engaged in different phases of industry and trade of Jute 4 . At the present time raw Jute or green Jute is being used in paper mills. This is very good alternative use of Jute. Presently in Bangladesh the production of Jute is greatly deceased. This is because of many constraints that reduced the yield of the crops and fungal disease is one of them. The pathogen may affect certain group of chemical substances/enzymes secreted in the host tissues during penetration and infection 5, 6 . The loss of production due to disease is about 8-20% with variation in severity from year to year 7 . The fungal diseases are not only responsible for yield lost but also deteriorate the quality of fiber and seeds. Therefore, present work deals with the isolation and characterization of locally distributed fungi and their pathogenicity on jute plants. Materials and Methods Samples and sampling sites In the present study 56 samples frominfected parts (stem, seeds etc.) of jute plant were collected (suspected for infection) from 8 (Eight) different regions of Bangladesh. After collection, samples were carefully preserved in the refrigerator at 4C for further studies. Isolation and purification To facilitate the germination of fungal pathogens on plant parts, Blotter and water agar methods were used. During isolation the samples of infected plant parts (except seed) were cut into 1-2 cm long piece. All the samples (the pieces of individual plant parts/seeds) were treated separately into 1:1000 HgCl 2 solutions for 1 minute in aseptic condition and shake properly 9 . Then the samples were washed at least 6-7 times with sterile distilled water thenput on a sterile moist blotter or water agar mediawere as follows: Detection of fungi by blotter method Samples (seed/plant parts) were analyzed for the detection of associated fungi by the blotter method as recommended by the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) with some modifications 9 . Three circles of blotter were soaked in distilled water and placed on the bottom of the sterilized petri dishes. At the rate of 25 seeds per dish, 400 seeds were studied in aseptic conditions. The petri dishes with the seeds were then incubated at room temperature (–27 on the laboratory desk under diffused day light and fluorescent tube light at night. The major Original Article Bangladesh J Microbiol, Volume 35, Number 1, June 2018, pp 67-73 Isolation and Characterization of Locally Isolated Jute Fungi and Determination of their Pathogenicity Md Abul Kashem 1 , Md Towhid Hossain 1* and M N Anwar 2 . 1 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh, 2 Vice Chancellor, Port City International University, South Khulshi, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Currently Jute farmer faces a number of problems in jute sector such as higher labor cost, fungal diseases, low market price, natural disasters etc. As a result the production of jute is far below than the desired figure. The severe yield lost of jute depends on a number of factors of which fungal diseases play a dominant role. In the present investigation 56 samples of infected jute plants were collected from 8 (Eight) different area of Bangladesh and the samples were investigated by Agar plate and Blotter methods. Symptoms of diseases were recorded and associated fungal pathogens were purified and characterized. Based on cultural and morphological characterizations three fungal pathogens were identified as Botryodiplodia theobromae Pat. (Griffon & Maubl.), Colletotrichum corchori (Ikata and Yoshida) and Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid and allthe isolates showed their pathogenicity on jute plants. Key words:Isolation, Characterization, Jute, Fungi, Pathogenicity *Corresponding author: Dr. Md Towhid Hossain, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh, Email: towhid.mbio@cu.ac.bd