Characterization and pathogenicity of Rhizoctonia solani AG-5 isolates obtained from chickpea in Turkey

Seventy-three isolates of Rhizoctonia were obtained from chickpea-growing areas of Usak, Kutahya, Isparta and Denizli provinces in Turkey. All the isolates were multinucleate (MN) and 50 of them showed hyphal fusion with the reference isolate of Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group 5 (AG-5). To confirm the identification, ITS gene regions of the isolates were sequenced with the ITS1 and ITS4 primers and they were found to be most similar to R. solani AG-5 to 91.0-100.0% identity. The isolates were examined for their cultural characteristics. All the isolates were found to be highly virulent on chickpea, and the disease severity values of them were between 56.1-99.0% under in vitro conditions. In the pot trial, IS23, one of the most virulent isolates, caused pre-emerged damping-off with the value of 98.0% disease severity. This is the first study in which morphological and pathogenic variabilities of R. solani AG-5 isolates were determined in chickpea in Turkey.