Rhizoctonia solani AG4 associated with foliar blight symptoms on barley in Iran

Abstract

Since June 2011, foliar blight symptoms have been observed in barley fields at Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran. The symptoms include water soaked spots progressing to elongated stripe and scald like lesions on the leaves and sheaths of barley plants. From cultural and morphological studies and phylogenetic analysis of sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) of the ribosomal DNA, the causal agent was identified as Rhizoctonia solani AG4. Pathogenicity tests revealed that R. solani AG4 is virulent to barley. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of R. solani AG4 causing foliar disease of barley in Iran.