In June and early July of 2003 and July of 2007, a smut disease was found on fescue (Festuca rubra L.) at the Fairbanks Golf and Country Club and vicinities, Interior Alaska. Diseased plants were pale green-to-slightly yellow and stunted. The lesions were long, narrow, yellowish green streaks parallel to the veins of leaves and sheaths. At a later stage, sori developed under the epidermis and the leaves and sheaths turned silvery gray. Rupture of the epidermis resulted in the release of masses of black spores that covered the leaves, especially along and within infected sheaths. Microscopic observation showed spore balls consisting of one-to-four, dark reddish brown teliospores surrounded by small, hyaline-to-light brown sterile cells. The spore balls were globose to elongate and 16 to 32 × 18 to 38 μm. The teliospores were globose, dark reddish brown, and 7.5 to 20 μm in diameter. Urocystis agropyri is recognized by R. W. Smiley et al. (2) and J. D. Smith et al. (3) as occurring on turf grasses; K. Vánky (4) restricts this species to Elymus spp. and recognizes U. ulei as the valid species infecting Festuca spp, including F. rubra. On the basis of host symptoms and morphology of spores, the smut found on F. rubra in Alaska fits better with published descriptions of U. agropyri (Preuss) Schrot (2,3), however, it likely is not conspecific with flag smut of wheat. For molecular verification of this identification, DNA was isolated from teliospores with a DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). Primers were designed for amplification of the large subunit ribosomal gene based on the only two published sequences of U. ranunculi (Lib.) Moesz (GenBank Accession No. AF009879) and U. colchici (Schltdl.) Rabenh (GenBank Accession No. AF009878) (1). A 400-bp PCR product was amplified by the forward primer 3′-GCATTGTAAACTCAGAAGTGTTATCCG-5′ and reverse primer 5′-TTCCCTAAACCTATATCCGGCG-3′. Nucleotide sequence of the PCR product (GenBank Accession No. AY547283) shared 97.7% homology with U. ranunculi and 98.2% with U. colchici. Comparison of nucleotide sequences will be more meaningful in the identification of species of Urocystis when additional sequences are published. To our knowledge, this is the first report of U. agropyri from turfgrass in Alaska.
References: (1) D. Begerow et al. Can. J. Bot. 75:2045, 1997. (2) R. W. Smiley et al. Compendium of Turfgrass Diseases. 3rd ed. The American Phytopathological Society, St Paul, MN, 2005. (3) J. D. Smith et al. Page 189 in: Fungal Diseases of Amenity Turf Grassess. E. & F. N. Spon, London, 1989. (4) K. Vánky. Page 308 in: European Smut Fungi. Gustav Fischer Verlag, NY. 1994.
