Isolation, identification, and pathogenicity of <i>Rhizoctonia</i> spp. recovered from soil samples of the greenhouse tomato growing area of the West Mediterranean region, Türkiye

This study's objective was to identify the anastomosis groups and pathogenicity of Rhizoctonia species from soil samples in tomato production areas of Antalya, Burdur, and Isparta provinces in the West Mediterranean Region of Turkiye during the 2022 season. Soil samples were gathered from tomato plant rhizospheres in 223 different greenhouses, and isolations were done from the soil using the baiting technique. According to the results of morphological characterization and sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacers of the ribosomal DNA, 47 Rhizoctonia isolates were defined as binucleate and 21 isolates as multinucleate. The collection of binucleate Rhizoctonia (Ceratobasidium sp.) isolates included representatives of Anastomosis Group-F (61.76%), AG-A (1.47%), and an unidentified binucleate Rhizoctonia (Ceratobasidium sp.) (5.88%). Multinucleate R. solani included AG 4 HG-I (26.47%) and AG 4 HG-II (4.41%). Pathogenicity tests showed statistically significant differences in virulence between binucleate Rhizoctonia (Ceratobasidium sp.) isolates and multinucleate Rhizoctonia isolates. All R. solani AG 4 HG-II isolates and most of the AG 4 HG-I isolates were pathogenic, causing severe necrosis symptoms and damping off in tomato seedlings, but binucleate AG-A and AG-F isolates were nonpathogenic. This study is the first detailed report about Rhizoctonia species isolated from the soil of tomato plants grown in greenhouse production areas in Turkiye.