Phaeotheca dimorphospora, which was first isolated from elm wood and found to be antagonistic in vitro against the Dutch elm disease pathogen Ophiostoma ulmi, was tested for antifungal activity in vitro against other tree pathogens by a variation of the agar layer technique. Phaeotheca dimorphospora produced antifungal compounds that were strongly inhibitory against a wide range of tree pathogens in addition to O. ulmi, such as Gremmeniella spp., Armillaria spp., Septoria musiva, Verticillium albo-atrum, Cylindrocladium floridanum, Phytophthora sp., Nectria galligena, and Heterobasidion annosum. Under light and interference microscopy, four types of morphological changes were observed in the pathogens tested: swelling of hyphae, production of resting spores such as chlamydospores and of sclerotia, extrusion of cytoplasm from hyphal tips, and bursting and destruction of mycelium. Chloroform-soluble antagonistic compounds were extracted that showed both fungicidal and fungistatic effects on the test organisms. Key words: Phaeotheca dimorphospora, biological control, fungal antagonist, hyphal interactions, antifungal metabolites, tree diseases.

No abstract

The variability of virulence within a Quebec population of the fungal pathogen Nectria galligena was studied under greenhouse conditions. Preliminary, small-scale inoculation of Betula allegbaniensis saplings confirmed that wounds have to be present for successful infection by N. galligena and showed that saphngs held at 10°G exhibited a broader range in necrotic zone length than saplings held at 24 °G for 6 weeks. Results from the inoculation of B. allegbaniensis saplings with eight full-sib progeny sets of four siblings each of N. galligena showed a wide range of virulence in this pathogen. The observed variability was probably of genetic origin since, in seven cases out of eight, one of the four siblings of a given family was significantly different from at least one other sibling of the same family. Inoculation of 5. allegbaniensis saplings with a population of 43 isolates originating from different host species and geographical locations further confirmed the variability of virulence within N. galligena but failed to indicate a relationship between virulence and host or geographic provenance. Inoculation of six additional deciduous tree species with a subset of nine isolates showed the polyphagous character of the pathogen, as lesions of comparable length were generally observed on five of the species tested.None of the nine isolates tested induced any necrosis on Fraxinus americana whereas Quercus macrocarpa tended to be slightly more resistant than the four remaining true species.