Sectors from Pyricularia grisea isolates on edifenphos and iprobenfos-amended media

Sectors of rice blast fungus, Pyricularia grisea, frequently appeared on potato dextrose agar amended with edifenphos and iprobenfos. Thus, we assessed the sector-forming frequency of isolates of P. grisea and compared the fungicide sensitivity between wild types and sectors against the fungicides. The 905 isolates of the fungus were obtained from rice-growing locations in Korea from 1997-1998. When the isolates were grown on potato dextrose agar amended with minimal inhibitory concentrations of edifenphos (20 μg a.i./ml) and iprobenfos (55 μg a.i./ml), they produced sectors that overcame the effect of the fungicides. Among the 905 isolates tested, 9.0% produced sectors against edifenphos and 5.6%, against iprobenfos. Different sector-forming frequencies were also observed among the 11 locations of Korea. Sectors obtained from the fungicide-amended media generally grew more than their counterpart wild types grown on the media with either edifenphos or iprobenfos, regardless of their origins. In this study, greater relative growth of sectors over wild types of tested isolates can support the resistant characteristic of the fungus to survive against the fungicides. Therefore, the results indicate that the sectoring in rice blast fungus, P. grisea, may play a role in the occurrence of fungicide resistance.