Project Number: 1230-22000-029-03
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: May 10, 2010
End Date: Jan 31, 2013

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative agreement is to survey and identify pathogenic and non-pathogenic Rhizoctonia spp. associated with turfgrasses with molecular pathological, cytological, ecological, and epidemiological criteria with a view to manage Rhizoctonia diseases. Another component of this objective is to molecularly characterize pathogenicity/virulence-associated factors at genome, gene or protein level.

Approach:
To identify Rhizoctonia infecting turfgrasses, a survey will be conducted to collect Rhizoctonia isolates from major golf clubs in Virginia, Maryland, and possibly a few North Eastern States. Rhizoctonia isolates will be classified to major groups (anastomosis groups (AGs), species, etc.), based on morphological, biochemical, and molecular biological characters. For molecular characterization, we may check the usefulness of rDNA PCR and sequencing, AFLP, RAPD, UP-PCR etc. We may also use non-turf Rhizoctonia isolates for comparative and disease control purposes. Molecular techniques like CHEF-gel electrophoresis, Northern, Southern and Western hybridizations, gene cloning, gene transformation may also be applied to study Rhizoctonia pathogenicity. For ecological and epidemiological studies, we may study climatic adaptation and prevalence of Rhizoctonia; susceptibility of various grass species and sensitivity of Rhizoctonia isolates to commonly used fungicides in turfgrasses.