Main text: Population structure of Wilsonomyces carpophilus, the shot hole pathogen of stone fruits in Kashmir, India.

Abstract

BackgroundShot hole caused by Wilsonomyces carpophilus is one of the major fungal diseases of stone fruits. The population structure of this fungus has not been studied in detail. The objective of this work was to study the population differentiation of W.carpophilus associated with peach, plum, apricot and almond in three geographical regions using inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers and DNA sequence of internal transcribed spacer (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) region from fungal isolates. ResultsThe geographical as well as host populations were homogenous with highest genetic diversity within the populations than among populations. Furthermore, the W.carpophilus population on plum host revealed minimal but considerable genetic difference from peach, apricot, and almond populations, suggesting that this pathogen may have speciated on plum host. ConclusionGene flow is the main evolutionary process shaping the genetic structure of W.carpophilus in Kashmir. In addition, W.carpophilus population on plum host showed low but significant genetic differentiation with peach, apricot and almond population implicating the possibility of speciation of this pathogen on plum host.