Characterization of Rhizoctonia spp. Isolates Associated with Damping-Off Disease in Cotton and Tobacco Seedlings in Greece.

Isolates of Rhizoctonia spp. were obtained during the spring of 2007 from diseased cotton and tobacco seedlings showing damping-off symptoms. The sampled fields were located in the main cotton- and tobacco-cultivating regions of central and northern Greece. Among the 79 isolates obtained from cotton plants, 17 were binucleate and 62 were multinucleate whereas, among the 89 isolates obtained from tobacco plants, 87 were multinucleate and only 2 were binucleate. Characterization of anastomosis groups (AGs) was performed with hyphal anastomosis reactions using tester isolates of known AG groups. Anastomosis reactions in cotton mutlinucleate isolates showed that 54 of them belonged in Rhizoctonia solani AG-4, 6 in AG-7, 1 in AG-2, and 1 in AG-3. In the 87 tobacco multinucleate isolates, anastomosis reactions showed that 70 of them belonged in R. solani AG-2, 16 in AG-4, and 1 in AG-5. In addition, molecular characterization was carried out using the specific ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer region, in a randomly selected number of isolates. In cotton, the most prevalent AG was AG-4, with 18 isolates to the subgroup HG-I, 1 isolate to the subgroup HG-II, and 7 isolates to the subgroup HG-III, followed by AG-7 (7 isolates), AG-2-1 (1 isolate), and AG-3 (1 isolate). In tobacco, the most prevalent group was AG-2-1 (70 isolates), followed by AG-4 (6 isolates to the subgroup HG-I and 5 isolates to the subgroup HG-III) and a single isolate belonging to AG-5. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the isolates were distinctly separated based on their AG types. Pathogenicity and aggressiveness of the isolates to several hosts was determined. AG-4 isolates from either cotton or tobacco were the most aggressive on the hosts tested, while AG-2-1 isolates were of moderate aggressiveness and were not pathogenic on barley.