VIEW ARTICLE

Nature and Epidemiological Significance of Infection of Bean Seed by Whetzelinia sclerotiorum. J. R. Steadman, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 68503; Phytopathology 65:1323-1324. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-65-1323.

Whetzelinia sclerotiorum was isolated from 48% of seed lots of bean cultivars Great Northern and Pinto harvested from white-mold-infected plants, but from only 6% of seed lots harvested from healthy-appearing plants in western Nebraska. The fungus was recovered from less than 0.5% of normal seed, but from nearly 12% of chalky, discolored, and shrivelled seed. Infected lots of seed planted in sterilized soil in a greenhouse humidity chamber did not produce white-mold-infected bean plants. Seeds infected with Whetzelinia sclerotiorum did not germinate in vitro. Whetzelinia sclerotiorum can be disseminated in seed, but this is unlikely to be of epidemiological significance.