• Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 2005

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 $32^{circ}C$ above but not to $30^{circ}C$ 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.

• Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.65-76
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• 2006

Scz1, an isolate of Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, was recently reported as a novel pathogen responsible for dollar spot disease in Zoysiagrass, a warm season turfgrass. Scz1 possessed different characteristics on mycelial pigment, mycelial affinity and host pathogenecity compared to those of Scb1, a typical isolate, obtained from creeping bentgrass, a cool season turfgrass. In this study, only three isolates, Scz1, Scz2(another analogous isolate of Sclerotinia homoeocarpa from zoysiagrass), and Scb1, were examined at the molecular level using the internal transcribed spacer(ITS) and random amplified polymorphic DNA(RAPD) assays to verify their identification and genetic variation. As a result of ITS assay, partial ITS sequences of three isolates showed 94-97% similarity with a standardized ITS sequence of S. homoeocarpa registered on BLAST. In the analysis of RAPD, range value through similarity matrix was 0.167 between Scz1 and Scb1, 0.139 between Scz2 and Scb1, and 0.713 between Scz1 and Scz2, respectively. Furthermore, tendegram analysis indicated that Scz1 and Scz2, unlike Scb1, were clustered together as accompanying a high genetic similarity. In in vitro fungicide bioassay, $EC_{50}$ value representing the sensitivity degree to propiconazole, a well-known fungicide for dollar spot disease, was 0.012 ${\mu}g/ml$ for Sczl, 0.003 ${\mu}g/ml$ for Scz2, and 0.030 ${\mu}g/ml$ for Scb1. From all data taken, we concluded that both Scz1 and Scz2 belonged to one group of S. homoeocarpa, since they exhibit the same host range and high level of genetic similarity, whereas their chemical competences to a fungicide were different. This study would provide further approach for assessing genetic diversity of S. homoeocarpa isolates as well as characterizing individual isolate against chemical exposure.

• Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.176-181
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• 2010

Brown patch (Rhizoctonia solani AG1-1), dollar spot (Sclerotinia homoeocarpa), pythium blight (Pythium spp.), anthracnose (Colletotrichum graminicola), yellow patch (Rhizoctonia cerealis) and Zoysia patch (Rhizoctonia solani AG2-2) are the major turfgrasses diseases in Korea. In this study, 23 medicinal plant extracts were tested for antifungal activities against turfgrass pathogenic fungi. In paper disk diffusion method, 12 medicinal plant extracts, including Sophora flavescens, showed antifungal activity. Also, in the test of antifungal activity on media contained the extracts of S. flavescens, Curcuma longa, Rheum undulatum, Coptis chinensis and Asiasarum sieboldi showed above 80% inhibitory effects on the mycelial growth in 110 mg/10 ml concentration of the extracts. S. flavescens, in particularly, showed antifungal activity against the six turfgrass pathogenic fungi. The inhibition rate of S. homoeocarpa was 100% in 10 mg/10 ml, 5 mg/10 ml and 2 mg/10 ml concentrations of C. longa extract. In case of Pythium spp., the extracts of S. flavescens, R. undulatum and C. chinensis showed 100 % inhibition rate on the test media.