Chang-Seuk Park

Draft Genome Sequence of Pantoea ananatis B1-9, a Nonpathogenic Plant Growth-Promoting Bacterium

Pantoea ananatis B1-9 is an endophytic Gram-negative rhizobacterium that was isolated for its ability to promote plant growth and improve crop yield in the field. Here we report the draft genome sequence of P. ananatis B1-9. Comparison of this sequence to the sequenced genome of a plant-pathogenic P. ananatis strain, LMG20103, indicated that the pathogenesis-related genes were absent, but a subset of gene functions that may be related to its plant growth promotion were present.

Ecology of Disease Outbreak of Circular Leaf Spot of Persimmon and Inoculum Dynamics of Mycosphaerella nawae

The circular leaf spot of persimmon is occurred almost every place where persimmon is cultivated, especially the disease outbreak severely in southern part of Korea. The disease reveals unusually long incubation period after pathogen invade into leaf tissue and no practical control measure is available once the symptom has appeared. Most of the farmers just follow the suggested spray schedules calculated on the basis of weather condition of ordinary years. Therefore the damages due to circular leaf spot greatly differ year after year. In this article, we tried to describe and summarized the investigation on the circular leaf spot pathogen, Mycosphaerella nawae, related to disease outbreak such as overwintering of pathogen, inoculum formation and spread, incubation period after infection, and secondary inoculum. With the summary of these results, we suggest the disease cycle of circular leaf spot of persimmon. The pathogen overwinters in diseased leaves as mycelial form or pseudoperithecial premodium. The pseudoperitheria become matured in spring as the temperature raise and forms asci and ascospores. The maturation of pseudoperithecia are closely related to the temperatures during March and early April. The ascospores completely mature in early May and the ascospores released when the pseudoperithecia absorbed enough moisture after rainfall. The release of ascospores are diverse greatly with the variation of maturity of pseudoperithecia. Generally the spore start to release from middle of May to early of July. Duration of ascospore release is depend on the weather condition of particular year, especially amount and number of precipitation. The ascospores produced from pseudoperithecia is known to the only inoculum for circular leaf spot disease. But according to the results obtained from our investigations, the conidia formed on the lesions which incited by natural infection. This conidia are infectious to persimmon leaves and formed identical symptom as natural infection. The time of producing secondary inoculum of circular leaf spot of persimmon is considered too late to develop new disease. Generally the importance of secondary inoculum is low but the conidia produced in early September are competent to develop new disease and new infection also significantly affect to harvest of persimmon. The importance of circular leaf spot disease is recognized well to farmers. The approaches to control of the disease should be initiated on the basis of the knowledges of inoculum dynamics and ecology of disease development. The forecasting system for circular leaf spot is need to be developed.

Rhizopus Soft Rot on Cherry Tomato Caused by Rhizopus stolonifer in Korea

A soft rot of fruits caused by Rhizopus stolonifer occurred on cherry tomato in Jinju City Agricultural Products Wholesale Market, Korea. The disease infection usually started from wounding after cracking of fruits. At first, the lesions started with water soaked and were rapidly softened and diseased lesion gradually expanded. The mycelia grew vigorously on the surface of fruits and formed stolons. Colonies on potato dextrose agar at 25°C were white cottony at first, becoming heavily speckled by the presence of sporangia and the browinish black, and spreading rapidly by means of stolons fired at various points to the substrate by rhizoids. Sporangia were 82.7 × 196.7 μm in size and globose or sub-globose with somewhat flattened base. The color of sporangia was white at first and then turned black with many spores, and never overhanging. Sporangiophores were 2.6–5.8 × 12.3~24.2 μm in width, smooth-walled, non-septate, light brown, simple, long, arising in groups of 3~5 from stolons opposite rhizoids. Sporangiospores were 8.2~18.8 μm long, irregular, round, oval, elongate, angular, and browinish-black streaked. Columella was 64.1 × 136.3 μm. brownish gray, and umberella-shaped when dehisced. The causal organism was identified to be R. stolonifer. This is the first report of Rhizopus soft rot on cherry tomato caused by R. stolonifer in Korea.

In vitro and In vivo Activities of a Biocontrol Agent, Serratia plymuthica A2l-4, Against Phytophthora capsici

In vitro and in vivo activities of a biocontrol agent, Serratia plymuthica strain A2l-4, was evaluated for the control of Phytophthora blight of pepper, Strain A2l-4 inhibited mycelial growth, germination of zoosporangia and cystospores, and formation of zoospore and zoosporangia of Phytophthora capsici in vitro. In the pot experiment, incidence of Phytophthora blight of pepper in non-treated control was 100% at 14 days after inoculation, while no disease was observed in the plot treated with S. plymuthica A2l-4. In the greenhouse test, infection rate of pepper in the non-treated plots was 74.5%, while it was only 12.6％ in the plots treated with A2l-4. Results indicate that S. plymuthica A2l-4 is a potential biocontrol agent for Phytophthora blight of pepper.

Stem Rot of Tomato Caused by Sclerotium rolfsii in Korea

Abstract A destructive stem rot of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) occurred sporadically some farmers’ fields in Jinju City, Gyeongnam province in Korea. The infected plants also showed stem, crown rot or whole plant blight. White mycelium spread over stems of infected plants and formed sclerotia on the old lesions nearby soil surface. The fungus showed maximum mycelial growth around 30°C. The fungus formed white colony on PDA, usually with many narrow mycelial strands in the aerial mycelium and the width were 4.0~9.8 μm. The typical clamp connections were formed on the mycelium. Numerous sclerotia was formed on PDA at 30°C. The shape of sclerotia was globoid and 1.0~3.0 mm in size. The fungus was isolated repeatedly from the infected tissues and the pathogenicity was confirmed to tomato and identified as Sclerotium rolfsii. This is the first report on the stem rot of tomato caused by S. rolfsii in Korea.

Root Colonizing and Biocontrol Competency of Serratia plymuthica A21-4 against Phytophthora Blight of Pepper

The biocontrol agent Serratia plymuthica A21-4 readily colonized on the root of pepper plant and the bacterium moves to newly emerging roots continuously. The colonization of A21-4 on the pepper root was influenced by the presence ofPhytophthora capsici in the soil. When P. capsici was introduced in advance, the population density of A21-4 on the root of pepper plant was sustained more than cfu/g root until 3 weeks after transplanting. On the other hand, in the absence of P. capsici, the population density of A21-4 was reduced continuously and less than cfu/g root at 21 days after transplanting. S. plymuthica A21-4 inhibited successfully the P. capsici population in pepper root and rhizosphere soil. In the rhizosphere soil, the population density of P. capsici was not increased more than original inoculum density when A21-4 was treated, but it increased rapidly in non-treated control. Similarly, the population density of P. capsici sharply increased in the non-treated control, however the population of P. capsici in A21-4 treated plant was not increased in pepper roots. The incidence of Phytophthora blight on pepper treated with A21-4 was 12.6%, while that of non-treated pepper was 74.5% in GSNU experimental farm experiment. And in farmer`s vinyl house experiment, the incidence of the disease treated with the fungicide was 27.3%, but treatment of A21-4 resulted in only 4.7% of the disease incidence, showing above 80% disease control efficacy.

Sooty Mold of Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) Caused by Cladosporium cladosporioides

【In 2002, sooty mold was observed on persimmon (Diopyros kald) from the Jinju Agricultural Products Wholesale Market in Gyeongnam, Korea. The lesion of the sooty mold usually appeared as scars or wounds formed on the surface of the fruits. The symptom started with water soaking lesion, then the fruit softened rapidly. Colony of the causal pathogenic fungus was dark green in color on potato dextrose agar. The diameter of growing hyphae was 1-2

Fruit Soft Rot of Sweet Persimmon Caused by Mucor piriformis in Korea

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Occurrence of Blue Mold on Sweet Persimmon(Diospyros kaki) Caused by Penicillium expansum

. The mostly one-celled conidia were ovoid, lemon or cylinder in shape, blastophores, and sized 46-132

Serratia plymuthica Strain A2l-4: A Potential Biocontrol Agent Against Phytophthora Blight of Pepper

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