VIEW ARTICLE

Host Virulence and the Hypomyces Stage of Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi. Takken Matuo, Professor, Faculty of Textile Science, Shinshu University, Ueda, Nagano-ken, Japan; William C. Snyder, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Berkeley 94720. Phytopathology 62:731-735. Accepted for publication 4 February 1972. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-62-731.

Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi, a widespread soil-borne pathogen, has been shown identical by mating tests to the pathogens causing foot and root rot of pea, branch blight of mulberry trees, and root rot of ginseng. This fungus is heterothallic in mating type and hermaphroditic or unisexual regarding sex. In nature the Hypomyces perithecia have been found only on diseased mulberry branches. The inference was thus made that origins of this pathogen and possible sources of new races may be in mulberry tree-growing regions, which include Japan. Most pea and mulberry tree isolates showed high virulence to pea seedlings, but ginseng isolates showed weak or no virulence to the same pea cultivars. However, both pea and ginseng isolates were virulent to mulberry branches.