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Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum spp. is a major disease of strawberry plants worldwide. The anthracnose of strawberries in Korea has occurred in most cultivated strawberry varieties since its first report in 1990. Although many studies and efforts have been made to control the disease, anthracnose continues to affect strawberry yields in Korea. In this review, we introduced various management methods to control anthracnose in strawberries, such as identifying pathogens and environmental factors involved in this disease, understanding the importance of latent infection, and developing diagnostic techniques and control methods. Through this review, we propose that researchers can elucidate a comprehensive and practical approach to control anthracnose by understanding this disease and developing strategies to prevent its spread, ultimately benefiting strawberry farmers.

Aortic aneurysms infected by Klebsiella pneumoniae are rarely seen. We describe a 50-year-old man with infected aortic aneurysm that was successfully treated with endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Diagnosis was confirmed using blood culture and computed tomography (CT). Intravenous antibiotics were immediately administered, with improvements in clinical findings and negative blood cultures before the procedure. Twenty-four months after the procedure, the patient was stable and serial CT revealed regression of the infected aortic aneurysm. Therefore, after controlling bacteremia and fever with targeted antibiotic therapy, EVAR can be considered as an alternative for patients who have serious comorbidities and are ineligible for conventional surgery.

Tomato black leaf molds were collected from the six metropolitan cities, which were occurred mainly from the end of August until November. There was no significant difference on the fungal growth between potato dextrose agar and tomato-oatmeal agar media. The mycelial growth of the fungus was robust at a relatively high temperature, from 28 to 30°C. The suppression rates of hyphal growth ranged from 17-98% on the media supplemented with four different chemicals such as difenoconazole, fluquinconazole and prochloraz manganese complex, metconazole, and flutianil and there is no different suppression rates of the fungicides on the tested Pseudocercospora fuligena isolates.

Acidovorax citrulli, the causal agent of bacterial fruit blotch, has caused an economically destructive damage in cucurbits cultivation fields worldwide. To consider more effective disease management, 33 A. citrulli isolates collected from various cucurbits in Korea were analysed by multi-locus phylogeny using five conserved loci (16S rRNA, adk, gltA, glyA, pilT). Two distinct groups (KCC1 and KCC2) in the population were identified on the base of group-specific genetic variation. Out of them, the predominant group was KCC2 and both groups included isolates from melon, cucumber and watermelon. Sixty-four percent of KCC1 isolates were recovered from non-watermelon hosts and seventy-two percent of KCC2 isolates from watermelon. This study presented that there was genetic differentiation among A. citrulli population in Korea. Also, these results will be applied as a very useful data in effective disease management

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of MRI as a diagnostic test in tarsal tunnel syndrome. There are no published reports with this aim and no diagnostic standard for idiopathic tarsal tunnel syndrome (TTS) using imaging modalities. Materials and Methods We retrospectively searched our Picture Archiving and Communication System data and medical records to identify patients who were clinically and electomyographically diagnosed with idiopathic TTS without space-occupying lesion on MRI. Twenty five patients were included in the patient group. Another twenty-five patients who underwent ankle MRI for Achilles tendon disease were selected and included in the control group. Cross-sectional areas (CSA) of tarsal tunnel were manually measured independently by two radiologists who were blinded to clinical and surgical results, using three-dimensional reconstruction software in our hospital. Measurements were done on axial images at three levels (level 1, tibiotalar joint level; level 2, medial malleolar tip level; level 3, sustentaculum tali level). Patient and control group data were statistically analyzed by the Mann-Whitney test. Results The mean values of CSA at levels 1, 2, and 3 of the tarsal tunnel were 87.8 mm2, 98.2 mm2, and 105.2 mm2, respectively in the patient group; and 100.0 mm2, 113.8 mm2, and 127.9 mm2 in the control group, respectively, in reader 1; and 86.2 mm2, 97.6 mm2, 105.2 mm2, respectively in the patient group; and 99.7 mm2, 112.3 mm2, 124.4 mm2, respectively, in the control group, in reader 2. The mean CSA in the patient group was significantly less than that of the control group at all three levels (p < 0.05). Intra-class correlation coefficient value between reader 1 and reader 2 were 0.98 in group 1, and 0.97 in group 2, respectively. Conclusion MRI can be helpful in the assessment of idiopathic tarsal tunnel syndrome. CSA measurements of tarsal tunnel at each level may predict TTS even though there are no space occupying lesions in the tarsal tunnel on MRI.

Clubroot caused by the obligate biotrophic protist Plasmodiophora brassicae Woronin is one of the most damaging diseases of Brassicaceae family. In this study, we developed species-specific primer sets for rapid and accurate detection of P. brassicae. The primer sets developed amplified a specific fragment only from P. brassicae DNA while they did not amplify a band from 10 other soilborne pathogens or from Kimchi cabbage. In sensitivity test, the species-specific primer set ITS1-1/ITS1-2 could work for approximately 10 spores/ml of genomic DNA showing more sensitivity and accuracy than previous methods. With quantitative real-time PCR test, the primer set detected less spores of P. brassicae than before, confirming that the species-specific primer set could be useful for rapid and accurate detection of P. brassicae.

Anthracnose crown rot (ACR), caused by Colletotrichum fructicola, is a serious disease of strawberry in Korea. The primary inoculums of ACR were symptomless strawberry plants, plant debris, and other host plants. To effectively control anthracnose in symptomless transplanted strawberries, it is necessary to use diseasefree plants, detect the disease early, and apply a fungicide. Therefore, in 2010 and 2011, we evaluated the efficacy of pre-plant fungicide dips by using strawberry transplants infected by C. fructicola for the control of anthracnose. Dipping plants in prochloraz-Mn for 10 min before planting was most effective for controlling anthracnose in symptomless strawberry plants and resulted in more than 76% control efficacy. Azoxystrobin showed a control efficacy of over 40%, but plants treated with pyraclostrobin, mancozeb and iminoctadine tris showed high disease severity. The control efficacy of the dip treatment with prochloraz-Mn did not differ with temperature and time. Treatment with prochloraz-Mn for more than an hour caused growth suppression in strawberry plants. Therefore, the development of anthracnose can be effectively reduced by dipping strawberry plants for 10 min in prochloraz-Mn before planting.

In 2005, a survey was conducted to identify virus diseases on victory onion, Allium victorialis var. platyphyllum grown in Ulleung island located in the East Sea. A total of 61 samples were collected from victory onion in the neighborhood of Seonginbong. The identification of viruses from the samples were carried out by electron microscopy and RT-PCR using primers species specific to GCLV, LYSV, SLV, OYDV and genus specific to Allexivirus, respectively. From sixty-one samples, filamentous rod particles (600-900 nm) were detected from four victory onion samples in EM, three samples containing SLV and one sample containing both SLV and Allexivirus in RT-PCR analysis, respectively. Victory onions naturally infected by the viruses were asymptomatic apparently. The viruses detected by RT-PCR were further characterized by the nucleotide sequence analysis of the coat protein region. Three isolates of SLV showed approximately 99% identities in the nucleotide and amino acid sequences, suggesting that they were likely to be the same strain. On the other hand, they showed approximately 75.7~83.7% identities in the nucleotide and 89.2~97.0% in amino acid sequences compared with the previously reported SLV isolates in Allium. The CP gene of the Allexivirus showed approximately 99.2% nucleotide identities and 98.8% amino acid identities with Garlic virus A. However, there was relatively low homology ranging from 60.6% to 81.5% compared with other Allexiviruses (GarV-C, GarV-E, GarV-X, GMbMV, and Shal-X). These data suggested that two viruses, SLV and GarV-A identified from victory onion, are named SLV-Ulleungdo and GarV-A-Ulleungdo, respectively. This is the first report of viruses infecting victory onion.

Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of soil solarization at the Nonsan Strawberry Experiment Station, Korea in 2006 and 2008. In in vitro tests, exposure times to achieve an LD100 of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fragariae were 6.6 days and 5.1 days at 45oC and 50oC, respectively. A 100% lethal temperature was 46.7±0.1oC for the same fungus. For field trials, solarization was conducted during the summer season using polyethylene mulch in a plastic house. The organic matter+calcium cyanamide+ solarization treatment increased pH, organic matter, and calcium content compared to those before treatment in soil analysis, but no effect had an urea+solarization treatment. The temperatures at 10 cm depth were different in each treatment and the highest temperature was recorded from July 30 to August 10. The average temperature in organic matter+calcium cyanamide+solarization treatment at 10 cm depth was 3~4oC higher than that in all the other treatments. All solarization treatments reduced the soil population of F. oxysporum f. sp. fragariae at 100% in 2008 relative to the non-treated control. All solarization treatments reduced Fusarium wilt incidence to 0% in 2006 and 2008. The effect of organic matter+calcium cyanamide+ solarization against F. oxysporum f. sp. fragariae indicates that there may be future alternatives to traditional solarization for disease control as well as reducing the time needed.