Survival of Sclerotia of Rhizoctonia solani AG3PT and Effect of Soil‐Borne Inoculum Density on Disease Development on Potato. Issue 3 (26th November 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ritchie, Faye; Bain, Ruairidh; Mcquilken, Mark
• Is Part Of: Journal of phytopathology. Volume 161:Issue 3(2013:Mar.)
• Page Start: 180
• Page End: 189
• Publication Date: 2012-11-26
• Subjects: Plant diseases -- Periodicals; 632
• DOI: 10.1111/jph.12052
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0931-1785

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en" id="jph12052-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Sclerotia produced by a single isolate of <italic>Rhizoctonia solani </italic>AG3PT were buried in small plot experiments to investigate the effects of sclerotial production method, soil type and burial depth on sclerotial viability in field soil. The factor with the greatest effect on sclerotial viability, defined as the percentage of sclerotia germinating on agar following retrieval, in all experiments was the duration of burial. After 18 months, on average across all experiments, 20% of retrieved sclerotia were viable. A comparison between sclerotia produced <italic>in vitro</italic> on malt yeast extract agar and <italic>in vivo</italic> using micropropagated tubers in field soil found no significant differences between the two production methods on sclerotial viability. Burial in field soil at 20‐cm depth was found to significantly reduce sclerotial viability to 50% compared to 60% at 5 cm. In two pot experiments, amending the growing medium and soil with increasing inoculum densities of <italic>R. solani</italic> was found to increase stem number, stem canker and black scurf severity regardless of whether this soil‐borne inoculum was derived from mycelium or sclerotia. Black scurf incidence and severity were assessed 30–32 days posthaulm destruction and found to be similar for a range of sclerotial soil‐borne inoculum densities (1.0 × 10<sup>−1</sup> g/kg d.w. soil to 6 × 10<sup>−3</sup> g/kg d.w. soil). The significance of these findings in relation to pathogen survival, detection in soil and disease development is discussed.</p> </abstract>