Occurrence and characterization of <i>Ustilago cynodontis</i> (Passerini) Henn., the causal agent of Bermudagrass (<i>Cynodon dactylon</i>) smut in Egypt
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Smutted Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.) plants with diseased spikelets and completely deformed inflorescences covered with black teliospores were collected from five locations at the borders of plantations in Kafr El-Sheikh province, Egypt, in April 2018. The fungus was isolated from infected plants and identified as Ustilago cynodontis (Passerini) Henn. based on its cultural and morphological characteristics, molecular techniques, and pathogenicity tests. Slender colonies of U. cynodontis with irregular edges were observed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) after 6 days at 28°C. The mature teliospores were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Crystal-like structures with a pyramidal shape were observed to be produced by the fungus in culture. The crystals were further examined using an energy dispersive spectroscopy system connected to the scanning electron microscope and their dimensions were measured (18 ± 2 µm × 16 ± 2 µm × 19 ± 2 µm). PCR analysis with internal transcribed spacer (ITS) specific primers yielded an amplicon that shared a 99% identity with U. cynodontis sequences in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the Egyptian isolate of U. cynodontis shared the greatest similarity with isolates of U. cynodontis from Ethiopia, Iran, India, United States, Mexico, Spain, and China. Inoculation of Bermudagrass with the isolated fungus resulted in symptoms of smut similar to those observed in the field. To our knowledge, this is the first report concerning the occurrence and characterization of U. cynodontis, the causal agent of Bermudagrass smut, in Egypt.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".