Abstract
Armillaria (honey fungus) is a virulent necrotrophic pathogen that causes
Armillaria root disease. Conventional Armillaria inoculation assays use young
saplings as hosts and consequently are cumbersome, frequently conducted
outdoors and take many years from establishment to analysis of infection. We have developed and evaluated a faster
inoculation assay for Armillaria that
uses herbaceous plants as hosts, is carried out in controlled conditions and
reduces experimental durations to three months. Plant species of known susceptibility to Armillaria and comparisons between
virulent A. mellea and opportunistic A. gallica were used to validate the
assay. Mortality and diagnostic symptoms
of Armillaria root disease such as
epiphytic rhizomorphs and mycelial fans were used to assess levels of infection. We also attempted to reduce assay preparation
time by substituting woody inocula with agar inocula, but typical symptoms of
Armillaria root disease were only observed on plants infected with woody
inocula. Through our assay, we
identified five new potential herbaceous hosts of Armillaria: Kniphofia
hirsuta, Hordeum vulgare, Lobelia cardinalis, Nicotiana tabacum and Helenium
hoopesii – further expanding the extensive list of plants with
susceptibility to Armillaria and suggesting infection of herbaceous
species may be more widespread than currently acknowledged
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 39-47 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology |
Volume | 92 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 31 Aug 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2017 |
Keywords
- honey fungus
- Armillaria mellea
- infection
- pathogenicity
- root rot
- Basidiomycete