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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Genetics and Breeding Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #387386
Research Project: Genetic Improvement and Cropping Systems of Warm-season Grasses for Forage, Feedstocks, Syrup, and Turf

Location: Crop Genetics and Breeding Research

Title: New approaches to an old problem: Dollar spot of turfgrass

Author
item Sapkota, Suraj
item CATCHING, K - University Of Georgia
item RAYMER, P - University Of Georgia
item MARTINEZ-ESPINOZA, A - University Of Georgia
item BAHRI, B - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: Phytopathology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/14/2021
Publication Date: 8/18/2021
Citation: Sapkota, S., Catching, K.E., Raymer, P.L., Martinez-Espinoza, A.D., Bahri, B.A. 2021. New approaches to an old problem: Dollar spot of turfgrass. Phytopathology. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-11-20-0505-RVW.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-11-20-0505-RVW

Interpretive Summary: Turfgrass has been used for centuries for recreational activities and represents a valuable economic commodity in the US and worldwide. Maintaining turfgrass to a level of high aesthetic quality and playability is often dependent on successful disease management. Turfgrass species are affected by only a handful of plant pathogens, but by far, dollar spot is the most common and widely distributed disease of all warm- (C4) and cool-season (C3) grasses worldwide. In this review, we summarize currently available knowledge on dollar spot and its causal agent Clarireedia spp. This review will be beneficial for the turfgrass scientific community to acquire a broad range of knowledge on disease epidemiology, management, and provide information useful for the development of turfgrass germplasm with improved dollar spot resistance.

Technical Abstract: Dollar spot, caused by the fungal pathogens Clarireedia spp. (formerly Sclerotinia homoeocarpa), is the most common and widely distributed disease of turfgrass worldwide. It can drastically reduce the quality of turfgrass species and impact their aesthetic value and playability. Management of dollar spot typically includes a costly program of multiple applications of fungicides within a growing season. Consequently, there have been reported cases of fungicide resistance in populations of Clarireedia spp. Host resistance could be an important component of dollar spot management; however, this approach has been hampered by the lack of sources of resistance as nearly all known warm- and cool-season turfgrass species are susceptible. With the recent advancement in genome sequencing technologies, studies on pathogen genomics and host-pathogen interactions are emerging with the hope to reveal candidate resistance genes in turfgrass and genes for virulence and pathogenicity in Clarireedia spp. Large-scale screening of turfgrass germplasm and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis for dollar spot resistance are important for resistance breeding, but only a handful of such studies have been conducted to date. This review summarizes currently available information on the dollar spot pathosystem, taxonomy, pathogen genomics, host-pathogen interaction, genetics of resistance, QTL mapping, and also provides some thoughts for future research prospects to better manage this disease.