Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Cultivation and Pathogenicity

The wild type isolate S. sclerotiorum “UF1” isolated from diseased petunia in Florida (Li et al., 2018 (link)) was used in this study. Strains were cultured, unless otherwise stated, on PDA medium at 25°C (Fan et al., 2017 (link)). S. sclerotiorum transformants were cultured on PDA amended with 100 μg/ml geneticin (Roche, Indianapolis, IN, United States) (Liu et al., 2018 (link)) and 50 μg/ml bromophenol blue (Sigma-Aldrich, United States) (Li et al., 2018 (link)). Liquid YPSU medium (50 ml containing yeast extract 4g, K₂HPO₄ 1g, Mg₂SO₄ ⋅ 7H₂O 0.5g, sucrose 15g, pH 6.5) was used to measure pH (Rollins, 2003 (link)). Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) used for pathogenicity assay grew in the greenhouse.