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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Grain Legume Genetics Physiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #235462

Title: Erysiphe trifolii causing powdery mildew of lentil (Lens culinaris)

Author
item ATTANAYAKE, RENUKA - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV.
item GLAWE, DEAN - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV.
item Dugan, Frank
item Chen, Weidong

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2009
Publication Date: 8/1/2009
Citation: Attanayake, R., Glawe, D., Dugan, F.M., Chen, W. 2009. Erysiphe trifolii causing powdery mildew of lentil (Lens culinaris). Plant Disease.93:797-803.

Interpretive Summary: The powdery mildew fungus Erysiphe trifolii was determined to be a new pathogen of lentil. The taxonomic determination was based on morphological characteristics like chasmothecial appendages and on DNA sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. In the process, the study also broadened the taxonomic concept of E. trifolii to include regularly dichotomously branched chasmothecial appendages. The investigation also employed an authentic specimen of E. trifolii to confirm the species identify of the lentil pathogen. Determining the species identify has important implications in managing the disease since different Erysiphe species have different host ranges. Knowledge of the species identity will help in determining crop rotation sequences and in selecting adjacent crops in managing lentil powdery mildew.

Technical Abstract: The taxonomy of the powdery mildew fungus infecting lentil in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the USA was investigated on the basis of morphology and rDNA ITS sequences. Anamorphic characters were in close agreement with descriptions of E. trifolii. However, teleomorphs formed chasmothecial appendages with highly branched apices, whereas E. trifolii has been described as producing flexuous or sometimes loosely-branched appendages. Branched appendages have been described in E. diffusa, a fungus reported from species of Lens, Glycine and Sophora, raising the possibility that the PNW fungus could be E. diffusa. Examination of an authentic specimen of E. trifolii from Austria determined that it included chasmothecial appendages resembling those seen in PNW specimens. Furthermore, ITS sequences from five powdery mildew samples collected from lentils in PNW greenhouses and fields from 2006 to 2008 were identical to one another, and exhibited higher similarity to sequences of E. trifolii (99%) than to those of any other Erysiphe spp. available in GenBank. Parsimony analysis grouped the lentil powdery mildew into a clade with E. baeumleri, E. trifolii and E. trifolii-like Oidium sp., but indicated a more distant relationship to E. diffusa. In greenhouse inoculation studies the lentil powdery mildew fungus did not infect soybean genotypes known to be susceptible to E. diffusa. The pathogenicity of E. trifolii on lentil was confirmed using modified Koch’s postulates. This is the first report of E. trifolii infecting lentil. Erysiphe diffusa and E. trifolii occur on different host ranges, so the discovery of E. trifolii on lentil has implications both for determining species of powdery mildews on cool season grain legumes and also in disease management.