Binucleate Rhizoctonia on Tobacco in Zimbabwe

Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn (teleomorph Thanatephorus cucumeris (A. B. Frank) Donk) anastomosis groups AG 4 and AG 3 cause, respectively, widespread stem rot and leaf spot diseases of tobacco in Zimbabwe (2). Stem rot leads to substantial field losses, necessitating routine chemical and biological control (1). A recent increase in reports on Rhizoctonia-induced damping-off in tobacco seedlings and lodging of mature field plants prompted detailed studies on the causal pathogen. Nuclear fluorescence microscopy studies of 83 isolates from diseased tobacco revealed the presence of binucleate isolates. The isolates were collected in 1981 (1 isolate), 1990 (1 isolate), 1996 (3 isolates), and 1997 (1 isolate) and caused damping-off in seedlings (2 isolates) and stem rot and lodging in field tobacco (4 isolates). We confirmed that all binucleate isolates contained only two nuclei per cell. There was variability in the number of nuclei among the multinucleate stem rot (mean 4.2, SE 0.265) and leaf spot (mean 7.5, SE 0...