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Baseline Sensitivity of Natural Population and Resistance of Mutants in Phytophthora capsici to Zoxamide

Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the baseline sensitivity of Phytophthora capsici and its risk for developing resistance to zoxamide. In total, 158 P. capsici isolates were collected from China. All 158 isolates were sensitive to zoxamide, with effective concentrations for 50% inhibition of mycelial growth of 0.023 to 0.383 μg/ml and a mean of 0.114 μg/ml, which showed a skewed unimodal distribution. Zoxamide-resistant mutants of P. capsici were obtained by either treating mycelial culture and zoospores with ultraviolet irradiation or adapting a culture on zoxamide-amended plates. The frequency of resistance selection averaged 1.8 × 10^–7. Resistant isolates were also derived by selfing or crossing two sexually compatible isolates, resulting in a mean selection frequency of 0.47. The resistance factor (RF) for zoxamide was 25 to 100 in P. capsici mutants. Through 10 culture transfers, the mutants maintained high levels of RF (between 14 and 134) and had almost equal fitness as their wild-type parents in mycelial growth, sporulation, and virulence. There was no cross resistance between zoxamide and either flumorph, metalaxyl, azoxystrobin, or etridiazole. Based on the results above, P. capsici can develop resistance to zoxamide, and the risk is predicted to be moderate in nature.