Evidence that each Rhizoctonia bare patch is dominated by an individual zymogram group (ZG) of Rhizoctonia solani AG-8

Abstract

Studies of rhizoctonia bare patches in the southern part of the cereal belt of Western Australia indicate that each patch is dominated by an individual pectic zymogram group (ZG) of R. solani AG-8. R. solani was isolated from plants sampled from patches or from wheat seedlings grown in undisturbed soil cores removed from patches. The Rhizoctonia spp. isolated were characterized using electrophoresis in pectin-acrylamide gels. Four patch-forming zymogram groups (ZG1-1, ZG1-2. ZG1-4 and ZG1-5) were isolated. Of 121 patches examined, only five yielded more than one ZG. Two of these were due to the coalescing of two patches dominated by different zymogram groups. For the remaining three, there was only an occasional isolation of a ZG different from the dominant ZG. This may indicate a new infection focus endeavouring to establish in soil that another ZG occupies. Occasionally, patch-forming ZG1-1, ZG1-2, ZG1-4 and ZG1-5 were isolated from non-patch sites.