2006 Volume 35 Issue 1 Pages 1-14
We tried to develop the PCR primers for detection of fungal pathogens in turfgrass diseases. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA in the genomic DNA regions was used for construction of the primers specific for each fungus, because the ITS regions in fungi were not highly conserved among the genera or species. The PCR primers were designed for Rhizoctonia solani AG2-2, AG-1 and AG-D causing Rhizoctonia patch, a less-sporulated strain of Curvularia genus causing leaf blight, Sclerotinia homoeocarpa causing dollar spot, Colletotrichum graminicola causing anthracnose, Gaeumannomyces graminis causing take-all patch and Pythium fungi causing red blight or blight, which were the causal agents of serious diseases in the turf green of golf courses in Japan. These PCR primers gave predicted DNA fragments that were species- or genus-specific for target fungi. Also, we succeeded to identify 4 kinds of fungi in one PCR sample when the primers were designed for producing a different length of amplified DNA fragments in each fungus. Thus, these PCR primers might be useful not only for detection of target fungi but also for diagnosis of turfgrass diseases.
