A PCR-based method to detect Sclerotium hydrophilum in infected rice leaf sheaths

An oligonucleotide primer pair set based on internal transcribed spacer regions of rDNA for PCR, which gives the amplicon for only the DNA from Sclerotium hydrophilum was designed. Tests on the speci. city of the primers concerned showed that a single product of 540 bp was amplified from the DNA of S. hydrophilum but not from the DNA of any other species responsible for sheath disease in rice, suggesting that the primer pair could be used to develop a PCR-based diagnostic method to provide a rapid and accurate molecular detection of this pathogen in rice leaf sheath.