• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.358-363
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• 2011

Dapple fruits of plum cv. Oiishiwase (Prunus salicina L.) were occurred at Gyeonggi-do and Gyeongsangbukdo. The symptoms resembled the dapple fruit disease caused by Hop stunt viroid (HSVd). To identify the causal disease agents, RT-PCR was performed with the specific primers of HSVd. RT-PCR analysis showed that HSVd variants (DP1, DP2) were detected from dapple fruits. HSVd detection was also confirmed by the dot blot hybridization using a DIG-probe specific to HSVd. Nucleotide sequences of DP1 and DP2 had the identities of 94-100% with those of other 7 variants of HSVd in Genbank database. DP1 and DP2 were different in two nucleotides of CG and AA at position of 59 and 60, orderly. Based on nucleotide sequences at position of 59 and 60, HSVd variants associated with plum dapple fruits could be divided mainly into three groups as CG, AA and TG.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.118-124
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• 2008

Skin sooty dapple disease, a fungal disease that lowers Asian pear fruit quality, has emerged recently in Korea but has not yet been thoroughly characterized. This disease affects the surface of fruit, leaves, and young shoots of the Asian pear, typically appearing as a dark or pale black dapple on the fruit surface. The disease initiates on the fruit with small circular lesions that become bigger, eventually spreading to form large circular or indefinite lesions. Sparse dark or flourishing white-greyish aerial mycelia and appearance of a dark or pale black dapple on the fruit surface are typical signs of this disease. The disease was severe during cold storage of the Niitaka and Chuhwangbae varieties, but more limited on the Gamcheonbae and Hwangkeumbae varieties. To identify causal pathogens, 123 fungal isolates were obtained from lesions. The fungi that caused typical skin sooty dapple disease symptoms in our bioassay were identified. Based on their morphological characteristics, 74% of the isolates were Cladosporium sp. and 5-7 % of the isolates were Leptosphaerulina sp., Tripospermum sp., or Tilletiopsis sp. None of the isolates caused severe soft rot by injection to a wound plug, but some of the Cladosporium sp. isolates caused mild maceration. Therefore this microbiol complex cannot account for the soft rot also observed in stored fruits. The high frequency of isolation of Cladosporium sp. from disease tissues and bioassay on pear fruit surface suggest that Cladosporium sp. could be a major pathogen in the microbial complex associated with skin sooty dapple disease of the Asian pear in Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.375-381
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• 2008

A new disease causing skin sooty dapple symptoms on fruits, leaves, and young shoot of Asian pear occurred in Korea. However, no chemical control approaches has been developed to control this disease. To investigate ecological aspects of this disease, we conducted field surveys in the high or low disease occurred orchards. The years with heavy rainfall caused severe occurrence of the skin sooty dapple disease than the years with lower rainfall during all growth stages of pear fruit. Different fruit-wrapping bags did not prevent occurrence of skin sooty dapple disease, and lesion numbers were higher in lower parts of fruit equatorial line inside of fruit-wrapping bags. There is a direct correlation between occurrence of the skin sooty dapple disease and frequency of fungicide application in the orchards. Among the tested commercial fungicides, thiophanate-methyl WP and penconazole WP completely inhibited the growth of the Cladosporium sp. in in vitro studies but little protection was observed in the field following fungicide applications. However, application of lime sulfur combined with the use of fruit-wrapping bags most effectively reduced incidence of the disease in the field. Our results suggest that skin sooty dapple disease could be a serious problem in sustainable organic pear farms and effective control methods for this disease urgently required.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.300-304
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• 2001

Apple is the most economically important fruit in Korea. The suspected viroid disease of dapple apple was found in apple fruits cultivated in Kyungpook province. Symptoms begin in mid-July as small circular spots, which stand out against the background color on the young fruit. Dappling of the fruit becomes more intense and easier to detect as the fruit approaches maturity; the affected spots remain yellowish as the fruit matures. no leaf or bark syndromes have been associated with this disease. The infected fruits are downgraded considerably during quality grading. The low molecular weight RNA containing viroid RNA molecules were extracted from the peels of the apples with dapple symptoms. The RNA molecules were extracted from the apples using Qiagen column chromatography. The purified RNAs were used for the synthesis of cDNA with RT-PCR. The PCR products were then ligated into a pGEM-T Easy vector, cloned and sequenced. The sequence of the viroid RNA molecule shows 331 nucleotides with one base difference ("G" insertion between the position of 133 and 134) compared with that of the Apple scar skin viroid (ASSVd) reported by Hashimoto and Koganezawa in Japan. This is the first report on the occurrence of the ASSVd in apple trees cultivated in Korea, as well as the identification of a new Korean strain of the ASSVd.the ASSVd.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.247-253
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• 2010

Apple scar skin viroid (ASSVd) is one of the smallest viral pathogens infecting fruits, especially apple, and causes a significant damage to fruit trees. ASSVd usually induced the skin-dapple ring symptoms, but in 'Fuji' varieties, corked spot were occurred on the fruit skin in 2009. This new symptom will be of great helpful to diagnosis ASSVd in sight. ASSVd was surveyed in apple and pear from 2009 to 2010 in Korea, and ASSVd was identified in 20 out of 1,193 trees. The infection rate was 1.7%. To screen the infectivity of ASSVd among apple cultivars, real-time RT-PCR was applied followed by designing of ASSVd specific primers based on highly conserved regions of several ASSVd isolates including Korean isolate. NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (nad 5) gene, which is mRNA of the mitochondrial gene, was used for internal control. In this study, ASSVd infected apples were classified into 12 groups depending on different symptoms and symptom severity (scaring, rusting or malformation). Taken together, this study suggested that real-time PCR analysis was more sensitive to detect the low copy of ASSVd on early viroid infected apple skins than regular RT-PCR method.