Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Dec;29(4):440-5.
doi: 10.5423/PPJ.NT.07.2013.0073.

Root Rot of Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) Caused by Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum

Chi Sung Jeon  1 , Gyoung Hee Kim  1 , Kyeong In Son  1 , Jae-Seoun Hur  2 , Kwon-Seok Jeon  3 , Jun-Hyuck Yoon  3 , Young Jin Koh  1
Affiliations

Root Rot of Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) Caused by Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum

Chi Sung Jeon et al. Plant Pathol J. 2013 Dec.

Abstract

Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) is a kind of mountain herbs whose roots have restorative properties and the cultivating acreage of balloon flower has been steadily increasing in Korea. More frequent rain and high amount of rainfalls as a result of climate changes predisposed balloon flower to the outbreaks of root rot at high-density cultivation area in recent years. Root crowns were usually discolored into brown to blackish brown at first and the infected plants showed slight wilting symptom at early infection stage. Severely infected roots were entirely rotted and whole plants eventually died at late infection stage. The overall disease severities of root rot of balloon flower were quite variable according to the surveyed fields in Jeonnam, Gyeongnam and Jeju Provinces, which ranged from 0.1% to 40%. The root rot occurred more severely at the paddy or clay soils than the sandy soils and their severities were much higher at lowland than upland in the same localty. The disease increased with aging of the balloon flower. The causal fungi were identified as Fusarium solani and F. oxysporum on the basis of their mycological characteristics. The optimum temperature ranges of their mycelial growths was found to be 24°C. The pathogenic characters of F. solani and F. oxysporum treated by artificial wounding inoculation on healthy roots of balloon flower revealed that F. solani was more virulent than F. oxysporum. This study identified the causal agents of root rot of balloon flower as Fusarium solani and F. oxysporum, probably for the first time.

Keywords: F. oxysporum; Fusarium solani; balloon flower; root rot.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Symptoms of root rot of ballon flower. (A) Balloon flower field, (B) Wilted plants among the healthy plants, (C) Wilt symptom caused by rotting on root crown of balloon flower, (D) External root symptoms, and (E) Internal root rot symptoms.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Morphological characteristics of Fusarium solani. (A) 2-day-old colony on PDA, (B) aerial mycelia of 1-week-old colony on PDA, (C) undersurface of 1-week-old colony on PDA, (D) microconidia, (E) macroconidia, and (F) chlamydospores.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Morphological characteristics of Fusarium oxysporum. (A) 2-day-old colony on PDA, (B) aerial mycelia of 1-week-old colony on PDA, (C) undersurface of 1-week-old colony on PDA, (D) microconidia, (E) macroconidia, and (F) chlamydospores.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Root rot symptom development on root crowns of balloon flower artificially inoculated by Fusarium solani and F. oxysporum. (A) wound-inoculated by F. solani, (B) unwound-inoculated by F. solani, (C) wound-inoculated by F. oxysporum, (D) unwound-inoculated by F. oxysporum. (E) wounded control, and (F) unwounded control. Arrows indicate soft rot symptoms caused by Fusarium solani or F. oxysporum.
Fig 5.
Fig 5.
Effect on tempearatures on growths of Fusarium solani and F. oxyspporum, the causal funngi of root rot of balloon flower.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Agrios GN. Plant Pathology. 5th ed. ElsevierAcademic Press; Burlington, MA, USA: 2005. p. 922.
    1. Booth C. Fusarium oxysporum. CMI Descriptions of Pathogenic Fungi and Bacteria. Kew, Survey; England: 1970. No. 211.
    1. Booth C. The Genus Fusarium. Commonwealth Mycological Institute; Kew, Survey, England: 1971. p. 237.
    1. David FF, Gerald FB, George PC, Amy YR. Fungi on Plants and Plant Products in the United States. Academic Press; St. Paul, MN, USA: 1989. p. 1252.
    1. Korea Crop Protection Association . Agrochemical Use Guide Book. Korea Crop Protection Association; 2012. p. 1351.

LinkOut - more resources