Characterization of <em>Botrytis cinerea</em> populations associated with treated and untreated cv. Moscato vineyards

Abstract

Three Botrytis cinerea populations, isolated from three vineyards, one untreated and two treated twice a year, respectively, with fenhexamid or cyprodinil+fludioxonil, were investigated to evaluate the effect of repeated fungicide treatments on the presence and distribution of the transposons Boty and Flipper, and on the phenotypic traits of each pathogen community. The vacuma individuals lacking the two transposons represented the majority of the 390 B. cinerea isolates followed by transposa strains containing Boty and Flipper, while the remaining 67 isolates harboured respectively only Boty (60) or Flipper (7). This research has demonstrated that fungicide application did not influence the transposon distribution patterns, the sensitivity towards various botryticides, or the growth rate of the isolates belonging to the three different populations, but did induced overall reduction of the population size and selected isolates characterized by an enhanced pathogenicity, especially on Vitis vinifera leaves.

Keywords

• transposable elements
• grey mould
• virulence
• phenotype