A fungal isolate was newly collected from Zoysiagrass 'Anyang-Joongji' in small circular patches on a fairway ofa golf course in Korea, which seriously occurred during the early summer period of 2005. The isolate presented on PDAmedium, named Scz1, wa...
A fungal isolate was newly collected from Zoysiagrass 'Anyang-Joongji' in small circular patches on a fairway ofa golf course in Korea, which seriously occurred during the early summer period of 2005. The isolate presented on PDAmedium, named Scz1, was closely identical to Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, a casual fungus of dollar spot disease, in cool season turf grasses such as creeping bentgrass. Hereby, this study was accomplished to characterize the isolate and compare it with the fungus, named Scb1, isolated from dollar spot-infected creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds. cv Penncross). On PDAmedium, individual mycelial appearance of three isolates was very similar except for the pigment. Mycelial pigments of Scz1 and Scz2 (another analogous isolate collected) were light pinkish on the reverse side of PDA medium but that of Scb1 was dark brownish. In a microscopic study, three isolates were barely distinguishable in the appearance of mycelia. As expected, in the temperaturesensitivity assay, all pathogens were very delicate to 32℃ above but not to 30℃ below, in which was explained to be one of typical characteristics in S. homoeocarpa. In an artificial inoculation assay, disease symptoms including leaf spots in Zoysiagrass were appeared within 6-7 days after inoculation through the hand inoculation method with the isolate-infested soil. Then the fungus was re-identified from the infected leaf tissues. Interestingly, inoculation of isolate Scz1 gave rise to distinct symptoms in only Zoysiagrass but not in creeping bentgrass 'Penncross' and Kentucky bluegrass 'Midnight'. The observation might be involved in host specific pathogenecity of S. homoeocarpa Scz1 to Zoysiagrass. In a chemical sensitivity assay for the isolate, Scz1, showed a high mycelial inhibition against two fungicides, iprodione and propiconazole. All results described above suggest that S. homoeocarpa Scz1 is a primary pathogen of Zoysia dollar spot disease.