• Mycobiology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.166-170
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• 2010

Gummy stem blight is a major foliar disease of muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.). In this study, morphological characteristics and rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences were analyzed to identify the causal organism of this disease. Morphological examination of the Jeonbuk isolate revealed that the percentage of monoseptal conidia ranged from 0% to 10%, and the average length $\times$ width of the conidia was 70 ($\pm$ 0.96) $\times$ 32.0 ($\pm$ 0.15) ${\mu}m$ on potato dextrose agar. The BLAST analysis showed nucleotide gaps of 1/494, 2/492, and 1/478 with identities of 485/492 (98%), 492/494 (99%), 491/494 (99%), and 476/478 (99%). The similarity in sequence identity between the rDNA ITS region of the Jeonbuk isolate and other Didymella bryoniae from BLAST searches of GenBank was 100% and was 95.0% within the group. Nucleotide sequences of the rDNA ITS region from pure culture ranged from 98.2% to 99.8%. Phylogenetic analysis with related species of D. bryoniae revealed that D. bryoniae is a monophyletic group distinguishable from other Didymella spp., including Ascochyta pinodes, Mycosphaerella pinodes, M. zeae-maydis, D. pinodes, D. applanata, D. exigua, D. rabiei, D. lentis, D. fabae, and D. vitalbina. Phylogenetic analysis, based on rDNA ITS sequence, clearly distinguished D. bryoniae and Didymella spp. from the 10 other species studied. This study identified the Jeonbuk isolate to be D. bryoniae.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.72-80
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• 2016

Gummy stem blight, caused by the fungus Didymella bryoniae, is major disease of watermelons worldwide. The objective of the present study was to establish an efficient screening system to identify watermelon resistant to D. bryoniae. An GSB3 isolate was prepared from a watermelon plant showing typical symptoms of gummy stem blight in Haman-gun and identified as D. bryoniae based on molecular analysis of internal transcribed spacer sequence. A simple mass-production technique of inoculum was developed based on spore production of D. bryoniae GSB3 under several incubation conditions and their virulence on watermelon plants. Resistance degrees of 22 commercial watermelon cultivars to the GSB3 isolate were evaluated. Among them, four watermelon cultivars showing different degree of resistance response were selected for further study. Development of disease on the cultivars according to various conditions including inoculum concentrations, incubation periods in dew chamber, and incubation temperatures was investigated. From the results, we suggest an efficient screening method for resistant watermelon cultivars to gummy stem blight. Seeds of watermelon cultivar are sown and grown in a greenhouse until plant stage of 2-fully expanded leaves. Seedlings are inoculated with D. bryoniae by spraying spore suspension of the fungus at a concentration of $5.0{\times}10^5spores/ml$. The infected plants are incubated in humidity chamber at $25^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours and then transferred to a growth chamber at $25^{\circ}C$ and 80% relative humidity with 12-hour light a day. Three to four days after inoculation, disease severity of the plant are measured using percentage of infected leaf area.

• Plant Disease and Agriculture
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 1999

Ultraviolet light is required for the sporulation of Didymella bryoniae, a gummy stem blight fungus in cucurbits such as watermelon, melon, oriental melon, cucumber and pumpkin. In this experiment, the upper limit of wave length for the production of pycnidia of D. bryoniae was 365 nm - 375 nm. Two plastic houses were covered with either common transparent film (wave length longer than 225 nm is transmitted) or UV-absorbing film ( wave lenght shorter than 388 nm is absorbed). In both houses, seedlings inoculated with D. bryoniae were placed in the center of the house at 30 days after transplantation of watermelon (cv. Whanhoseong), and the disease incidences between the houses were compared until 80 days after transplantation. The number of disease lesions and incidence of pycnidia-producing lesions under the UV-absorbing film were reduced by 90% and 80%, respectively, compared to the common transparent film. The internode lengths of plants grown in the two houses were not significantly different, but the plants grown under the UV-absorbing film had longer vines and more leaves than plants under the common transparent film. However, fruit characters such as weight, length, width, rind thick and brix, were not different between the two houses. Occurrence of aphids was reduced in the UV-absorbing film, but those of mites or diseases (powdery mildew and sooty mold) were not different between the houses. These results suggest that disease incidence of gummy stem blight of watermelon in the greenhouse can be controlled by the use of UV-absorbing film.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 1997

Didymella bryoniae, gummy stem blight fungus of cucurbits, has been known not to produce its pycnidium in vitro without irradiation. Various methods for producing pycnidiospores of the fungus as an inoculum have been used. However, those methods have not been verified in terms of efficiency of the productivity, activity and synchronous maturation of the inoculum. Therefore, a pycnidiospore production method in vitro that is highly reliable and reproducible has to be developed to obtain a large amount of inoculum for screening disease resistant varieties or effective fungicides. Here we standardized a mass-production technique for pycnidiospores of D. bryoniae in vitro by comprehensively finding the optimal conditions such as kinds and thickness of cultural medium, growing temperature, and quality and duration of irradiation as well as examining the activity and pathogenicity of the pycnidiospores reproduced. In brief, mycelial colony on the PDA plate was cultured at 26$^{\circ}C$ for 2 days under the darkness, and then the plate was irradiated under the UV light (12 hr/a day) for 2~3 days at the same temperature(26$^{\circ}C$). Two days after UV irradiation, a great number of pycnidia was simultaneously formed. This plate was subjected to darkness again for 4~5 days to mature pycnidiospores. We could obtain a large amount of inoculum that is synchronously matured in a short period of time through the above procedures.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2006

We isolated a bacterium which produces antifungal substances from the Sanktpeterburg soils at Russia. The iso-lated strain was identified as Brevibacillus sp. and shown a strong antifungal activity on plant pathogenic fungi. Brevibacillus sp. KMU-391 produced maximum level of antifungal substances under incubation aerobically at $30^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours in trypticase soybean broth containing 1.0% sucrose and 1.0% polypeptone at 180 rpm and initiated pH adjusted to 7.0. Precipitate of culture broth by $30{\sim}60%$ ammonium sulfate precipitation exhibited strong antifungal activity against Didymella bryoniae by dry cell weight. Butanol extract of cultured broth also shown fungal growth inhibitory activity against Botrytis cinerea KACC 40573, Botrytis fabae KACC 40962, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides KACC 40804, Colletotrichum orbiculare KACC 40808, Didymella bryoniae KACC 40669, Fusarium graminearum KACC 41040, Fusarium oxysporum KACC 40037, Fusarium oxysporum KACC 40052, Fusarium oxysporum f, sp. radicis-Iycopersici KACC 40537, Fusarium oxysporum KACC 40902, Monosporascus cannonballus KACC 40940, Phytophthora camvibora KACC 40160, Rhizoctonia solani AG-1(IA) KACC 40101, Rhizoctonia solani AG-4 KACC 40142, and Scleotinia scleotiorum KACC 41065 by agar diffusion method.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.36-45
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• 2006

Twenty isolates of Didymella bryoniae were isolated from infected cucurbit plants in various growing areas of southern Korea in 2001 and 2002. Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) group [RG] I of D. bryoniae was more virulent than RG IV to watermelon. Virulence of the RG I isolate was strong to moderate to cucumber, whereas that of the RG IV varied from strong, moderate to weak. Two hundred seventy-three amplified fragments were produced with 40 primers, and were analyzed by a cluster analysis using UPGMA method with an arithmetic average program of NTSYSPC. At the distance level of 0.7, two major genomic DNA RAPD groups were differentiated among 20 isolates. The RG I included 7 isolates from watermelon and one isolate from melon, whereas the RG IV included 12 isolates from squash, cucumber, watermelon and melon. Amplification of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and small subunit rRNA region from the 20 isolates yielded respectively a single fragment. Restriction pattern with 12 restriction enzymes was identical for all isolates tested, suggesting that variation in the ITS and small subunit within the D. bryoniae were low. Amplification of the genomic DNAs of the tested isolates with the sequence characterized amplified regions (SCAR) primer RG IF-RG IR specific for RG I group resulted in a single band of 650bp fragment for 8 isolates out of the 20 isolates. Therefore, these 8 isolates could be assigned into RG I. The same experiments done with RG IIF-RG IIR resulted in no amplified PCR product for the 20 isolates tested. An about 1.4 kb-fragment amplified from the RG IV isolates was specifically hybridized with PCR fragments amplified from genomic DNAs of the RG IV isolates only, suggesting that this PCR product could be used for discriminating the RG IV isolates from the RG I isolates as well other fungal species.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.260-265
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• 2003

Gummy stem blight caused by Didymella bryoniae occurs exclusively in cucurbits. This fungus has been known not to produce its pycnidium in vitro unless irradiated. In this study, cultural conditions for the mass-production of pycnidiospore by Metal Halide (MH) lamp irradiation were maximized. The mycelia were cultured at $26^{\circ}C$ on PDA for 2 days under dark condition, and then the plate was illuminated with MH lamp continuously for 3-4 days at $26^{\circ}C$. Results show that a great number of pycnidia were simultaneously formed. The pycnidiospores produced were then used as immunogen. Fusions of myeloma cell (v-653) with splenocytes from immunized mice were carried out. Two hybridoma cell lines that recognized the immunogen D. bryoniae were obtained. One monoclonal antibody (MAb), Dbl, recognized the supernatant while another MAb, Db15, recognized the spore. Two clones were selected which were used to produce ascite fluid of the two MAb, Dbl and Db15, the immunotypes of which were identified as IgG1 and IgG2b, respectively. Titers of MAb Dbl and MAb Db15 were measured and the absorbance exceeded 0.5 even at a $10^{-5}$ dilution. The MAbs reacted positively with D. bryoniae but none reacted with other viral isolates, Cucumber mosaic virus and Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus. Sensitivity of MAb was precise enough to detect spore concentration as low as $10^{-3}$/well by indirect ELISA. Characterization of the MAbs Dbl, Db15 antigen by heat and protease treatments, which suggests that the epitope recognized by these two MAbs was glycoprotein.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.238-242
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• 2004

Antifungal agents, flavofungin and fungichromin were isolated from the fermentation culture broth of a Streptomyces sp. SKM338. Biological evaluation of these antibiotics indicated that the compounds possesses broad spectrum antifungal activity against various pathogens. Especially, these compounds inhibited throughly growth of Didymella bryoniae, caused Gummy stem blight of melons, occurs in the southeastern Korea. Inhibition of this pathogen may be prevented from directly reducing both pre- and post-harvest yields.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.173-177
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• 1985

The objective of the study is to determine differences between cucurbits in the pathogenicity of Didymella bryoniae isolated from the naturally infected seeds of cucumber and pumpkin. Primary seedling infection of cucumber(Cucumis sativus L.), oriental melon(Cucumis melo var. makuwa Makino), pumpkin(Cucurbita pepo L.) and watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris Shrad.) occurred on the radicle, hypocotyl and cotyledons and symptoms on each crop were very similar. Infection of the radicle generally caused pre-emergence rot, while infection on the hypocotyl and cotyledons provided further inoculum for infection of the first true leaves and the stem. In cross inoculation tests, all isolates of D. bryoniae could infect cucumber, oriental melon, pumpkin and watermelon at different growth stages and there were not much differences in pathogenicity or susceptibility between isolates of the pathogen and crops tested. The susceptibility of cucumber and pumpkin was markedly influenced by prevailing humid conditions.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.313-318
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• 2004

Internal fruit rot of cucumber was observed in several locations in Korea. Incidence of the disease reached up to 21.5% and averaged 4.2% in the fields surveyed. The disease started at blossom ends of cucumber fruits. Internal tissues of infected fruit tips showed brown discoloration over 2 cm in length and 2 mm in diameter. Subsequently, the brown discoloration was extended into the carpels, and the surface of the infected fruit tips was rugged. Fungal isolates from the internal tissues of diseased fruits were identified as Didymella bryoniae based on mycological characteristics. Temperature for mycelial growth of isolates ranged $5{\sim}32^{\circ}C$ with optimal temperature between $26{\sim}28^{\circ}C$. Similar symptoms were developed in the internal part of the cucumber fruit when conidial suspensions of the isolates were inoculated to the flower of cucumber. Furthermore, Didymella bryoniae isolates from other plant parts of cucumber, watermelon, oriental melon, melon and pumpkin also showed the similar symptoms in the internal part of cucumber fruits by inoculation tests. Temperature range for occurrence of internal fruit rot of cucumber was $10{\sim}32^{\circ}C$ with optimal temperature of $25{\sim}28^{\circ}C$.