Disease Note

First Report of Eyespot (Kabatiella zeae) of Corn in South Dakota. M. L. Carson, Plant Science Department, South Dakota State University, Brookings 57007. Plant Disease 69:177, 1985. Accepted for publication 22 August 1984. Copyright 1985 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-69-177a.

Eyespot symptoms were observed on several individual corn (Zea mays L.) plants in a 1.5-ha corn disease research plot at Brookings, SD, in 1983.  Falcate hyaline nonseptate conidia typical of Kabatiella zeae Narita & Y. Hiratsuka were produced by placing infected leaf tissue on water agar for 24 hr at 25 C.  The fungus was cultured on potato-dextrose agar and identified as K. zeae on the basis of colony and conidial morphology.  Dried corn leaf tissue bearing Exserohilum turcicum (Pass.) Leonard & Suggs (race 1) lesions from the previous season's disease nursery had been ground and used to inoculate the research plots.  This indicates that K. zeae probably was present in the plots in 1982 but not detected.  Eyespot has not been reported in commercial cornfields in South Dakota, even though susceptible hybrids are widely grown.  No extensive surveys for this disease have yet been conducted in South Dakota.

Reference: Arny, D. C., et al. Phytopathology 61:54, 1971.