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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Frederick, Maryland » Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #425446
Research Project: Integrative Genomic and Biological Approaches to Detect and Manage Emerging Foreign Fungal and Oomycete Plant Pathogens

Location: Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research

Title: New or unusual oomycetes collected from turfgrass in New Jersey and North Carolina.

Author
item Shishkoff, Nina
item GROBEN, GLEN - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE)
item Hancock, Dustin
item Crouch, Joanne

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/13/2025
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: N/A

Technical Abstract: As part of the testing of a new oomycete specific primer set designed to amplify the cox1, spacer, cox2 region and sequenced using an Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) device, environmental samples were taken from turfgrass sites in North Brunswick, NJ and Clayton, NC. Phylogenetic analysis determined the presence of two new Pythiums in the New Jersey samples and the presence of a species of the poorly understood genus Pythiogeton in the North Carolina sample. All three taxa were baited out of cores taken from turfgrass plantings and their colony morphology characterized on corn meal agar, V-8 agar and potato-carrot agar. The Pythiums were grown on V-8 agar at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 C to determine their optimal growth temperatures. All taxa were grown on autoclaved grass blades in sterile water and incubated at 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 C and observed for sporangia, zoospore release, hyphal swellings, appressoria, oogonia, antheridia and mature oospores. The Pythiogeton matches the description of P. ramosum, possibly the first record of this organism in the U.S. The organism is probably acting as a saprophyte, although Pythiogeton can be a weak plant pathogen. One of the new Pythiums (provisionally Pythium quipu) releases zoospores from undifferentiated hyphae and has frequent hyphal swellings and infrequent thick-walled oospores, while the other (provisionally P. japamala) produces swollen lobed sporangia and frequent mono- and diclinous oospores.