• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.98-105
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• 2020

Venturia nashicola is a fungal pathogen causing scab disease in Asian pears. It is particularly important in the Northeast Asia region where Asian pears are intensively grown. Venturia nashicola causes disease in Asian pear but not in European pear. Due to the highly restricted host range of Venturia nashicola, it is hypothesized that the small secreted proteins deployed by the pathogen are responsible for the host determination. Here we report the whole genome based phylogenetic analysis and predicted secretomes for V. nashicola isolates. We believe that our data will provide a valuable information for further validation and functional characterization of host determinants in V. nashicola.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1782-1786
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• 2015

A new improved PCR method has been developed for the rapid, reliable, and sensitive detection of Venturia nashicola, a destructive pathogen of scab disease in Japanese pear. The translation elongation factor-1 alpha gene-derived PCR primers specifically amplified a 257-bp-sized DNA band of the target gene from the genomic DNA of V. nashicola. No amplicon was produced from the genomic DNA of other Venturia spp. and reference fungal species tested. With the high detection limit of 10 fg DNA content, our real-time method could be used for the quarantine inspection and field monitoring of V. nashicola.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2023

Pear scab, caused by Venturia nashicola, is one of the most devastating diseases of Asian pears in Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan. To manage this disease, growers mainly relied on chemical control. However, continuous use of chemical causes not only environmental contaminant but also the emergence of resistance to pathogens, so a more sustainable management plan is needed. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the life cycle and infection characteristics of V. nashicola and to set an active control strategy according to meteorological conditions rather than, as in the past, calendar-based control or continuous use of a specific fungicide system. Various results of the related research results were reviewed to summarize the race, infection characteristics, and control system of V. nashicola, a pear scab, and to discuss plans for a more effective control system.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.347-357
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• 2014

This study was conducted to evaluate the control effect of sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) for Venturia nashicola on Niitaka pear during flowering period. As a nontoxic disinfectant, sodium dichloroisocyanurate is widely used in the field of hygiene and disease prevention, medical treatment, aquiculture as well as plant protection. NaDCC was sprayed on the pear tree inoculated with conidia ($4.5{\times}10^5spores/mL$) of Venturia nashicola and as a result the incidence of pear scab was 23.8% in 750mg/L and 26.2% in 1,000mg/L compare to the 51.6% incidence in untreated tree. No damage in the pollen of pear flower was detected with NaDCC treatments in the full bloom period for six pear cultivar including Wonwhang. A NaDCC single treatment in the early bloom of Niitaka pear showed more than 98% of fertilization rate. Furthermore, there was no incidence of Venturia nashicola on Nitaka pear trees treated with NaDCC 4 times during their growth period.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.357-363
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• 2013

The fungus Venturia nashicola is the causal agent of scab on Asian pears. For the rapid and reliable identification as well as sensitive detection of V. nashicola, a PCR-based technique was developed. DNA fingerprints of three closely related species, V. nashicola, V. pirina, and V. inaequalis, were obtained by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. Two RAPD markers specific to V. nashicola were identified by PCR, after which two pairs of sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) primers were designed from the nucleotide sequences of the markers. The SCAR primer pairs, designated as D12F/D12R and E11F/E11R, amplified 535-bp and 525-bp DNA fragments, respectively, only from genomic DNA of V. nashicola. The specificity of the primer sets was tested on strains representing three species of Venturia and 20 fungal plant pathogens. The nested PCR primer pair specific to V. nashicola was developed based on the sequence of the species-specific 525-bp DNA fragment amplified by primer set E11F/E11R. The internal primer pair Na11F/Na11R amplified a 235-bp fragment from V. nashicola, but not from any other fungal species tested. The nested PCR assay was sensitive enough to detect the specific fragment in 50 fg of V. nashicola DNA.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.75-79
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• 2017

The causal fungus of pear scab, Venturia nashicola, grows slowly and rarely produces conidia on artificial media in the laboratory, but it produced conidia on the Cheongah medium containing Cheongah powder. V. nashicola grew too slow to produce conidia until 15 days after cultivation but produced conidia with $4{\time}10^4$ conidia/plate 30 days after cultivation on the Cheongah medium containing 1% Cheongah powder. V. nashicola showed a peak production of conidia with $4.5{\times}10^5$ conidia/plate 60 days after cultivation on the carrot medium containing 2% carrot powder, one of the constituents of Cheongah powder. The carrot medium is considered to be the best medium to obtain conidia of V. nashicola in the laboratory until now. This is the first report on the development of a suitable medium for conidia production of V. nashicola, as far as we know.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.228-233
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• 2023

Two pear cultivars with different degrees of resistance to Venturia nashicola were evaluated on the basis of a disease severity rating for pear scab resistance under controlled environmental condition. Two inoculation techniques were tested: the procedure for inoculation by dropping conidia suspension of V. nashicola; the procedure by deposition of agar plug on the abaxial surface of pear leaves. All tested cultivars resulted in blight symptoms on the inoculated leaves and became spread to uninoculated region or other leaves. Although both methods provide satisfactory infection of V. nashicola on pear leaves, the mycelial plug method of inoculation was more reliable than the spray inoculation method for the evaluation of pear scab disease resistance. The incubation period of V. nashicola in the resistant pear cultivar, Greensis was longer than that in the susceptible cultivar, Hwasan.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.200-204
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• 2013

Dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) melanin is known to be present in some ascomycete fungi. To verify the type of melanin in Venturia nashicola that cause scab on pear, we investigated scytalone dehydratase (SD) gene, one of DHN melanin genes, from 11 isolates of V. nashicola from different provinces in Korea and Japan. Through PCR approach, 429 bp amplicon was produced from the 11 isolates and sequenced. All of the PCR-amplified sequences were determined as SD gene through GenBank database search. All the determined sequences were composed of an intron and two exons coding for 122 amino acids of SD. The homology of SD gene was 100% among the 11 isolates. Sequence identity of the predicted SD protein of 122 amino acids ranged 69 to 73% with other fungi. Our results proved that V. nashicola operates DHN melanin pathway.

• Mycobiology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.76-86
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• 2019

Scab disease caused by Venturia nashicola is of agroeconomic importance in cultivation of Asian pear. However, little is known about the degree of genetic diversity in the populations of this pathogen. In this study, we collected 55 isolates from pear scab lesions in 13 major cultivation areas in Korea and examined the diversity using sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, ${\beta}$-tubulin (TUB2), and translation elongation factor-$1{\alpha}$ ($TEF-1{\alpha}$) genes as molecular markers. Despite a low level of overall sequence variation, we found three distinctive subgroups from phylogenetic analysis of combined ITS, TUB2, and $TEF-1{\alpha}$ sequences. Among the three subgroups, subgroup 1 (60% of isolates collected) was predominant compared to subgroup 2 (23.6%) or subgroup 3 (16.4%) and was distributed throughout Korea. To understand the genetic diversity among the subgroups, RAPD analysis was performed. The isolates yielded highly diverse amplicon patterns and none of the defined subgroups within the dendrogram were supported by bootstrap values greater than 30%. Moreover, there is no significant correlation between the geographical distribution and the subgroups defined by molecular phylogeny. Our data suggest a low level of genetic diversification among the populations of V. nashicola in Korea.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.150-158
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• 2017

Pear scab caused by Venturia nashicola has been reported as an important disease of pear resulting in lowering the quality of pear fruits. In this study, it was conducted to investigate the relationship between resistance of V. nashicola and mutation of ${\beta}$-tubulin gene and the fungicide resistance in field isolate group in benzimidazole fungicides. Responce of V. nashicola to carbendazim could be classified into 3 groups as sensitive that does not grow at all on PDA amended with $0.16{\mu}g/ml$ of carbendazim, low resistance that could not grow in $4.0{\mu}g/ml$ medium, and high resistance that can grow even at $100{\mu}g/ml$. Thirty isolates of V. nashicola collected from 3 regions as Wonju, Naju, and Okcheon were highly resistant to carbendazim. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of ${\beta}$-tubulin gene of V. nashicola showed that there was no difference in the nucleotide sequence between the sensitive and the low-resistant isolate, but GAG at codon 198 (glutamic acid) was replaced with GCG (alanine) in the high-resistant isolate. Among 10 isolates obtained from the Okcheon, 5 isolates showed the substitution of glycine for glutamic acid, which were resistant to carbendazim, but more sensitive to the mixture of carbendazim and diethofencarb than others. Through these results, all isolates of V. nashicola isolated in pear orchard were found to be resistant to benzimidazoles. Also, mutants E198A and E198G at ${\beta}$-tubulin were found to be important mechanisms of V. nashicola resistance against benzimidazole fungicides.