Iori Imazaki

Publications (4)2.76 Total impact

• Article: Effects of thiophanate-methyl and azoxystrobin on the composition of Cercospora kikuchii populations with thiophanate-methyl-resistant strains

  Iori Imazaki, Hiromi Iizumi, Kouji Ishikawa, Masashi Sasahara, Nobuko Yasuda, Shinzo Koizumi
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  ABSTRACT: Azoxystrobin was recently registered in Japan for the control of purple seed stain of soybean caused by Cercospora kikuchii, because the pathogen has developed resistance to thiophanate-methyl. To investigate the effects of these fungicides on the frequency of C. kikuchii strains resistant to thiophanate-methyl and on the genotype structure of the population, we sowed purple-stained seeds, approximately 40% of which were infected with resistant strains, as inocula with asymptomatic seeds and applied thiophanate-methyl and azoxystrobin during the reproductive growth of soybeans. The isolation frequency of resistant strains increased more than 99% by thiophanate-methyl but was not significantly increased by azoxystrobin. In amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) DNA fingerprinting, genotypic diversity was significantly decreased by thiophanate-methyl but was not affected by azoxystrobin. In addition, the similarity of the AFLP genotype structure was increased by thiophanate-methyl but not by azoxystrobin. These results suggest that thiophanate-methyl selectively inhibited the proliferation of sensitive strains, which resulted in a small number of genotypes, most of which were resistant strains. Azoxystrobin was found to nonselectively inhibit proliferation of the pathogen, which retained a large number of genotypes including thiophanate-methyl-sensitive or thiophanate-methyl-resistant strains or both.
  Journal of General Plant Pathology 04/2012; 72(5):292-300. · 0.69 Impact Factor
• Article: Temperature-upshift-mediated revival from the sodium-pyruvate-recoverable viable but nonculturable state induced by low temperature in Ralstonia solanacearum: linear regression analysis

  Iori Imazaki, Kazuhiro Nakaho
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  ABSTRACT: The viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state is induced in stress-injured bacterial cells. VBNC cells lose their ability to grow on standard media, but some of the cells can recover on media supplemented with H2O2-degrading compounds such as sodium pyruvate (SP). Here, VBNC cells that can recover on such media are called SP-recoverable VBNC cells; VBNC cells that do not recover are called SP-unrecoverable VBNC cells. On the basis of previous findings, we hypothesized that cells of Ralstonia solanacearum in which low temperature had induced the SP-recoverable VBNC state would regain their ability to grow on standard solid media after exposure to moderate temperature. To test this, cell suspensions of R. solanacearum were incubated at 5°C. When SP-recoverable VBNC cells were the only culturable cells present, the cell suspensions were exposed to 25°C. The temperature upshift caused an initial rapid increase in the number of active cells able to grow on standard solid media, followed by a more gradual increase. Linear regression analyses suggested that this increase was not attributable to the regrowth of a low level of residual active cells. In addition, all the revived cells tested caused wilt symptoms in susceptible tomato plants. When SP-unrecoverable VBNC cells were the only viable cells present in the 5°C microcosms, the cell suspensions were exposed to 25°C. In this case, no culturable cells were detected. Therefore, these data strongly suggest that the SP-recoverable VBNC cells regained their ability to grow on standard solid media after the temperature upshift and that the revived cells were virulent.
  Journal of General Plant Pathology 04/2012; 75(3):213-226. · 0.69 Impact Factor
• Article: Pyruvate-amended modified SMSA medium: improved sensitivity for detection of Ralstonia solanacearum

  Iori Imazaki, Kazuhiro Nakaho
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  ABSTRACT: The viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state is induced in the bacterial wilt pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum under prolonged environmental stress. These VBNC cells lose their ability to grow on standard media such as CPG agar, but some of the cells can recover this ability on media supplemented with sodium pyruvate (SP), that degrades hydrogen peroxide. Recently, we suggested that some of the cells in the low-temperature-induced SP-recoverable VBNC state regained their ability to grow on CPG agar after exposure to moderate temperature. These revived cells also retained their virulence on tomato. Although R. solanacearum is detectable on semiselective media, VBNC cells are not detectable on any known semiselective media for the pathogen. To create a suitable medium to detect VBNC cells, we therefore added various compounds that can either degrade hydrogen peroxide or serve an antioxidant function in a semiselective medium, modified SMSA. SP at 5g/l most improved the sensitivity of R. solanacearum detection. Furthermore, counts on modified SMSA plates for R. solanacearum that had been added to field soil also increased after the addition of 5g/l SP. SP thus improved the medium’s sensitivity for the detection of R. solanacearum by rescuing a portion of the VBNC cells.
  Journal of General Plant Pathology 04/2012; 76(1):52-61. · 0.69 Impact Factor
• Article: Incidence of thiophanate-methyl resistance in Cercospora kikuchii within a single lineage based on amplified fragment length polymorphisms in Japan

  Iori Imazaki, Kouji Ishikawa, Nobuko Yasuda, Atsushi Miyasaka, Shinji Kawasaki, Shinzo Koizumi
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  ABSTRACT: We collected 247 isolates of Cercospora kikuchii from soybean seeds with typical purple stain symptoms from 15 prefectures in Japan. Of the 247 isolates, 93 were sensitive to thiophanate-methyl, a benzimidazole used to control this soybean disease; the remaining 154 were highly resistant to the fungicide. To examine genetic variability among the population of 247 isolates, we developed amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. An AFLP primer pair generated DNA fingerprint polymorphisms among the sample isolates, and with the unweighted pair-grouping method to cluster arithmetic means of the similarity coefficients among all pairs of the fingerprint patterns, the isolates were divided into four lineages (I to IV). Of the 247 isolates, 225 belonged to lineage I, including all isolates that were resistant to thiophanate-methyl. To determine whether the resistance of these isolates was related to mutations in the β-tubulin gene, we amplified partial nucleotide sequences of the gene from 29 representative isolates, including 12 that were resistant to thiophanate-methyl, by means of the polymerase chain reaction. The resistant isolates had identical nucleotide sequence with a one-step change at codon 198, in which the amino acid glutamic acid had been replaced by alanine. The evidence thus suggests that thiophanate-methyl resistance might have arisen in lineage I, the largest of the four lineages.
  Journal of General Plant Pathology 03/2006; 72(2):77-84. · 0.69 Impact Factor