Formation of the phenotypic structure of Phytophthora infestans population in Poland during 1987-2001

Abstract

The formation of phenotypic structure of P.infestans population in Poland was determined by analyzing 1603 isolates collected from 1987 to 2001. The race complexity, low at the beginning of experiment, has been increasing from year to year and reached in 2001 a high level 7,2 virulence factors per isolate. The single and less composed races dominating firstly in the population were replaced gradually by more composed races. The virulence factors 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 11 occurred most frequently, but factors 5 and 8 were noted sporadically. The A2 mating type was detected in 1988 at first and since that time its occurrence has been noted in Polish population each year. The oospores were formed in potato tissues. Race diversity, low at the beginning of the investigation, reached a peak in 1996-2001 . During 1987-1990 weakly and middly aggressive phenotypes dominated in Polish population. In the later period very aggressive isolates were more frequent. Phenotypic race similarity of P.infestans populations in 1987 and 2001 was very low. The race structure of 1987 population was totally different from the race structure of populations of the next years. It was probably due to migration of new pathotypes. On the other hand the variation in complexity, diversity and similarity of races, as well as in aggressiveness observed in later years of investigation can be caused by the presence of both mating types and sexual recombination.

Keywords

• aggressiveness
• mating type
• population
• Phytophthora infestans
• structure