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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #352792
Research Project: Enhancing Plant Protection through Fungal Systematics

Location: Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory

Title: A new genus: Identifying and naming the fungi that cause dollar spot disease on turf

Author
item BEIRN, LISA - Rutgers University
item SALGADO-SALAZAR, CATALINA - Orise Fellow
item TREDWAY, LANE - Syngenta
item CLARKE, BRUCE - Rutgers University
item Crouch, Jo Anne

Submitted to: Golf Course Management
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/30/2018
Publication Date: 7/1/2018
Citation: Beirn, L.A., Salgado-Salazar, C., Tredway, L.P., Clarke, B.B., Crouch, J.A. 2018. A new genus: Identifying and naming the fungi that cause dollar spot disease on turf. Golf Course Management. 86(7):69-72

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Dollar spot is a common and widespread disease affecting cool- and warm-season turfgrasses throughout the world. Recently, a group of researchers from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Rutgers University, North Carolina State University and the Ohio State University teamed up to provide an accurate identification of the fungus responsible for dollar spot, after more than 80 years of mistaken identity. Using DNA information, an entirely new and undescribed group of fungi was identified and named as the genus Clarireedia. Dollar spot affecting warm-season grasses like seashore paspalum and bermuda grass was caused by different Clarireedia fungi than those found infecting cool-season grasses such as creeping bentgrass and Kentucky bluegrass. In the United Kingdom, dollar spot disease was caused by two very different species of Clarireedia fungi than what was found elsewhere in the world. The renaming and reclassification of the fungi that cause dollar spot after over 80 years marks a significant milestone for these economically important pathogens. Moreover, the discovery of four distinctly different fungal species highlights the tremendous biological diversity present within this new genus.