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Molecular Characterization of Vegetative Compatibility Group 4A and 4B Isolates of Verticillium dahliae Associated with Potato Early Dying

Forty isolates of Verticillium dahliae, collected from potato seed tubers and potato plants from various regions in North America and previously assigned to vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) 4A or 4B, were characterized using molecular markers. The VCG 4A isolates were previously shown to be a highly virulent pathotype of potato and to interact synergistically with the root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus penetrans to cause potato early dying. All but one of the VCG 4A isolates characterized in this study lacked the subspecies-specific repetitive DNA sequence E18 and could be differentiated from the remaining isolates by restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) in the nuclear rDNA and Trp1 loci. The E18 RFLP patterns of several VCG 4B isolates from Maine and New York were highly similar to those of VCG 4B isolates previously collected from potato and tomato fields in Ontario. The data presented here suggest that the molecular markers will be useful for the detection and classification of isolates of V. dahliae associated with potato early dying.