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Title: GREENERIA UVICOLA, CAUSE OF BITTER ROT OF GRAPES, BELONGS IN THE DIAPORTHALES

Author
item Farr, David
item Castlebury, Lisa
item Rossman, Amy
item ERINCIK, OMER - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Mycologia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/27/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Fungi that cause diseases of crops are extremely successful because of their ability to move quickly from one plant to another infecting broad geographic regions where the crop is grown. Fungi are able to do this because they produce vast quantities of spores without undergoing sexual reproduction. For most plant pathogenic fungi the sexual state of reproduction is not known nor are the close relatives known. This is the case for Greeneria uvicola, the cause of bitter rot of grapes, a disease that is difficult to control. Using molecular sequences of the DNA of this fungi and comparing that of other fungi, it was determined that the fungus that causes bitter rot of grapes is related to fungi that cause diseases of blueberries, melons, and soybeans. Knowing this will allow grape pathologists and growers to develop better measures to control bitter rot of grapes.

Technical Abstract: Bitter rot of grapes, a cosmopolitan disease, is caused by Greeneria uvicola, an asexually reproducing fungus with no known sexual state. Based on molecular sequence data, specifically the large subunit of the ribosomal DNA, it was determined that G. uvicola is a member of the Diaporthales. Data are also presented that suggests the family Magnaporthaceae, including Magnaporthe grisea (anamorph: Pyricularia grisea) and Gaeumannomyces graminis, plant pathogens of wheat, rice and other grass crops, should be excluded from the Diaporthales.