Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and potato (S. tuberosum) crops are grown on over 67,000 acres (27,114 ha) in Wisconsin annually. Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) deBary, is a potentially devastating disease that affects tomato and potato crops in Wisconsin every few years when inoculum is introduced and weather conditions favor disease. Incidence and severity of late blight are highly variable in these few years due to differences in pathogen clonal lineages, their timing and means of introduction, and weather conditions. Prevention of this disease through preventative application of fungicides can cost producers millions of dollars per year in additional chemical, fuel, and labor expenses. In 2009, late blight caused by P. infestans clonal lineage US-23 was observed on potato very late in the season in Vernon County, southwestern Wisconsin, in very low incidence and severity. In 2010, US-23 again appeared but on tomato in two southeastern Wisconsin counties, Waukesha and Ozaukee, again in low incidence and severity. Clonal lineages of P. infestans documented in Wisconsin in previous epidemics included US-8 in the mid-1990s and US-1 in the 1970s. Populations of P. infestans in the United States have recently undergone significant genetic change, resulting in isolates with unique clonal lineages and epidemiological characteristics (1). Foliar symptoms included water-soaked to dark brown circular lesions with pale green haloes accompanied by white pathogen sporulation. On tomato fruit, lesions were firm, sunken, and brown. Isolates of P. infestans were generated from field-infected tomato and potato foliar and fruit tissues collected by the authors and professional crop consultants. In initial pathogen confirmation analysis in 2009, three isolates of P. infestans were generated from one potato plant exhibiting multiple lesions from one of eight fields tested by placing infected leaf excisions onto Rye A agar amended with rifampicin and ampicillin. Axenic, single zoospore-derived cultures of isolates were generated from parent cultures and maintained on Rye A agar for further characterization. In 2010, three US-23 isolates were recovered from three locations (two counties), out of 20 fields tested. Mycelium was coenocytic with hyphal diameter of 5 to 8 μm (n = 50). Sporangia were limoniform or ovoid, semi to fully papillate, caducous, had short pedicels, and were 26.16 μm high × 18.17 μm wide (n = 50). The average length/width ratio was 1.42. Allozyme banding patterns at the glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (Gpi) locus indicated a 100/100 profile, consistent with the US-23 clonal lineage (3) Mating type assays confirmed the isolates to be A1 and in vitro intermediate mefenoxam sensitivity was observed (4). Genomic DNA was extracted with a phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol solution and RFLP analysis was performed using the RG-57 probe on a representative isolate and resulted in banding patterns consistent with US-23 (2,3). The P. infestans clonal lineage US-23 was present in epidemics in 2009 and 2010 in the United States. Disease symptoms associated with US-23 were observed exclusively on potato in 2009 and on tomato in 2010 in Wisconsin. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. infestans clonal lineage US-23 causing late blight on tomato and potato in Wisconsin and represents a change in the composition of the pathogen population from previous epidemic years.
References: (1) K. Deahl. (Abstr.) Phytopathology 100:S161, 2010. (2) S. B. Goodwin et al. Curr. Genet. 22:107, 1992. (3) Hu et al. Plant Dis. 96:1323, 2012. (4) A. C. Seidl and A. J. Gevens. (Abstr.) Phytopathology 101(suppl.):S162, 2011.
