Occurrence of Pythium Blight Caused by Pythium aphanidermatum on Chewing Fescue

Pythium blight occurred by Pythium aphanidermatum on chewing fescue cv. “Jamestowm II” from early June, 2010 and 2011 at the test field in Daegu University in Gyeongbuk Province, Korea. Disease symptoms on the turfgrass were leaf blights dying from the leaf tip and root rot, which appeared patches of brown to dark brown color or gray brown color in the field. The pathogens (40-1 isolate) of Pythium blight was isolated from the diseased leaf and crown tissue and cultured on potato-dextrose agar (PDA) for identification. Lobulate sporangia were inflated, complex structures, and filamentous sporangia were usually indistinguishable from vegetative hyphae. Sequences of ribosomal RNA gene of the fungus were homologous with similarity of 100% to those of P. aphanidermatum isolates in GenBank database. Pathogenicity was also confirmed on the chewing fescue, creeping betgrass and Kentucky bluegrass by Koch"s postulates. This is the first report of Pythium blight on chewing fescue caused by P. aphanidermatum in Korea.