Characterization and pathogenicity of Bipolaris peregianensis: the causal organism for leaf spot of hybrid bermudagrass in China

Several golf courses established with hybrid bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon × C. transvaalensis) were surveyed from April 2011 through April 2015 in Hainan Province, China. The hybrid bermudagrass in these golf courses showed a new leaf spot disease, and a filamentous fungus was consistently recovered from the infected leaves. Based on the morphological characteristics of colony color and appearance, shapes of conidiophores and conidia as well as sequences of internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), the fungus was identified as Bipolaris peregianensis. The pathogenicity test conducted on healthy hybrid bermudagrass produced leaf spot symptoms one week post inoculation. B. peregianensis mycelia grew in a temperature range of 5 to 35 °C with the optimum temperature being 28 °C.