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A Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Procedure for Detection of Acremonium coenophialum in Tall Fescue. R. P. Doss, Horticultural Crops Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 3420 N.W. Orchard Ave., Corvallis, OR 97330; R. E. Welty, National Forage Seed Production Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 3450 S.W. Campus Way, Corvallis, OR 97331. Phytopathology 85:913-917. Accepted for publication 23 May 1995. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1995. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-85-913.

Inserts from clones of a genomic library constructed using DNA from the fungal endophyte Acremonium coenophialum were screened using dot blots and Southern blots. Several inserts that hybridized to DNA from A. coenophialum and to DNA from endophyte-infected (E+) tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), but not to DNA from endophyte-free (E–) grass, were sequenced. Oligonucleotide primers were synthesized, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out using DNA from E+ and E– tall fescue genotypes. PCR with one set of 21-mer primers yielded a prominent 1-kb product with DNA from A. coenophialum-infected plants but not from uninfected plants. This PCR-based procedure provides an accurate, rapid, and sensitive means of detecting A. coenophialum in tall fescue.