Comparison of Botrytis cinerea populations isolated from two open-field cultivated host plants

Abstract

The necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea is reported to infect more than 220 host plants worldwide. In phylogenetical-taxonomical terms, the pathogen is considered a complex of two cryptic species, group I and group II. We sampled populations of B. cinerea on sympatric strawberry and raspberry cultivars in the North-East of Hungary for three years during flowering and the harvest period. Four hundred and ninety group II B. cinerea isolates were analyzed for the current study. Three different data sets were generated: (i) PCR-RFLP patterns of the ADP-ATP translocase and nitrate reductase genes, (ii) MSB1 minisatellite sequence data, and (iii) the fragment sizes of five microsatellite loci. The structures of the different populations were similar as indicated by Nei's gene diversity and haplotype diversity. The F statistics (Fst, Gst), and the gene flow indicated ongoing differentiation within sympatric populations. The population genetic parameters were influenced by polymorphisms within the three data sets as assessed using Bayesian algorithms. Data Mining analysis pointed towards the five microsatellite loci as the most defining markers to study differentiation in the 490 isolates. The results suggest the occurrence of host-specific, sympatric divergence of generalist phytoparasites in perennial hosts.

An isolate morphologically and phylogenetically distinct from Botrytis cinerea obtained from withered grapes possibly represents a new species of Botrytis

“…B83 yielded negative and faintly positive results in Flipper and Boty amplifications, respectively. All four transposon genotypes (vacuma, transposa, Flipper ‐only and Boty ‐only) have been found in B. cinerea populations of various origins at different frequencies (Isenegger et al ., ; Rajaguru & Shaw, ; Fekete et al ., ; Samuel et al ., ; Asadollahi et al ., ). As transposon genotyping is irrelevant for species discrimination (Walker et al ., ), this analysis did not provide additional information on the taxonomic status of isolate B83.…”

Characterization of Egyptian <i>Botrytis cinerea</i> Isolates from Different Host Plants

“…The majority of B. cinerea isolates (86.7%) were virulent, whereas 13.3% of them, collected from different host plants, caused no infection on lettuce leaves. In fact, B. cinerea can infect a wide range of host plants and plant organs under laboratory conditions, and it had long been thought that B. cinerea had no host specificity [22] [23], while other studies had shown the occurrence of host specificity [52]. In addition, the Egyptian B. cinerea populations did not demonstrate any relation between TE genotype and isolate…”

A Single Nucleotide Mutation in Adenylate Cyclase Affects Vegetative Growth, Sclerotial Formation and Virulence of Botrytis cinerea

“…The genetic diversity of natural populations of B. cinerea causes them to exhibit extensive phenotypic variation and leads to great differences in reproductive patterns, pathogenicity and drug resistance [30][31][32]. During saprotrophic culture, fungi may also exhibit natural phenotypic variation due to various environmental factors [33].…”