Four isolates of the test pathogen were isolated from
infected root,leaf, stemtissues of strawberry, bushbean, and
pea. The infected plant specimens were washed with tap
water and were cut into small pieces (5 mm). The pieces
were surface sterilized with 1.0% chlorox for 5 min and then
rinsed in sterilized water for three times. The sterilized
pieces of the diseased tissue were placed on 1.5% water agar
amended withstreptomycinsulfate.After 3 days,hyphaltips
of isolates were transferred into Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA)
plates, which were incubated in the laboratory at room
temperature (25 8C). Sclerotia were removed by elutriation
and sieving onto screens with 600- and 150-micrometer
openings [16]. Isolates from sclerotia were obtained by
germinating sclerotia on water agar and transferring hyphal
tips to PDA. The isolates were purified following hyphal tip
technique [17],identified using standard key [18], and stored
in PDA slants in test tubes at 10 8C.