Raffaelea quercus‐mongolicae is a mycangial symbiont of a wood‐boring ambrosia beetle, Platypus koryoensis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Platypodidae), which is believed to be associated with oak mortality in South Korea. Since the first discovery of the disease in 2004, oak mortality has continued to spread across the country, and the pathogen has had a significant impact on forest ecosystems in the country; however, little is known regarding the biology of the fungus. The aim of this study was to develop markers to determine the mating types of individual isolates of R. quercus‐mongolicae collected across the country and then determine the mating‐type ratio in natural populations. To achieve this, partial sequences of MAT1‐1–3 and MAT1‐2–1 genes were amplified using degenerate primers and cloned. The new primer sets, which were specific to each mating‐type idiomorph, identified isolates as MAT1‐1 and MAT1‐2 mating types. The roughly equal frequencies of the two mating types suggest that sexual reproduction might have occurred in natural populations of R. quercus‐mongolicae in South Korea.

Oak wilt caused by Raffaelea quercus-mongolicae was first noticed in South Korea in 2004 and, ever since, its distribution and damage have been increasing. To screen a fungicide effective for oak wilt control by tree injection, laboratory and field experiments were conducted. Ten fungicides and one antibiotic were examined in vivo for their effectiveness in restricting the growth of R. quercus-mongolicae and R. quercivora (Japanese oak wilt pathogen) isolates. To the Korean isolates of R. quercus-mongolicae, chlorothalonil showed the highest fungicidal effects, followed by benomyl and propiconazole. To the Japanese one, propiconazole was highest in the fungicidal effectiveness, followed by benomyl and bitertanol. Propiconazole was selected for field-testing of its control efficacy because it showed good fungicidal effects in vitro and systemic activity. The control efficacy in the field was 87.5% in the first year of injection and 66.7% in the second year, indicating the fungicidal effects last at least over one year.

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the virulence of geographically different isolates of oak wilt pathogen, Raffaelea quercus-mongolicae and other Raffaelea species. In this study, mature trees of Quercus mongolica were inoculated with the various isolates of Raffaelea spp. and their virulence was evaluated by measuring the extent of sapwood discoloration resulting from the inoculation. The average length of discolored sapwood in a lateral direction was longest in the trees inoculated with the isolates from Korea (8.69 cm) followed by R. quercivora (7.51 cm) and the other Raffaelea spp. (3.35 cm). The lateral length of discolored sapwood caused by the inoculation with Korean strains varied from 4.71 to 14.90 cm indicating their differences in virulence. The area of discolored sapwood caused by the inoculation with Raffaelea spp. varied from 1.57 to 8.42 cm 2 indicating their differences in virulence. Based on the length and area of the discolored sapwoods, isolated YY and wj43 appeared to have the highest virulence among all the Raffaelea isolates tested. Each of the two isolates was obtained from Gangwon Province and Jeonbuk Province, respectively.

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