Transgenic creeping bentgrass with delayed dollar spot symptoms

Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds) is animportant turfgrass used on golf course greens and fairways. It is susceptibleto a number of fungal pathogens and requires considerable fungicide use fordisease control. Transgenic approaches may be useful in improving the level ofdisease resistance. We have generated transgenic creeping bentgrass plantsexpressing PR5K from Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Henyh. PR5Kis a receptor protein kinase whose extracellular domain is homologous to thePR5family of pathogenesis-related proteins. In a field test of plants inoculatedwith the fungal pathogen dollar spot (Sclerotiniahomoeocarpa F.T. Bennett) four of the eight transgenic lines showeddelays in disease expression of 29 to 45 days, relative to the control plants.