ISOENZYME ANALYSIS OF TELIOSPORES FROM SPECIES OF ANTHRACOIDEA PARASITIC ON CAREX SPECIES

The smut sori of five Anthracoidea species, A. echinospora, A. heteros pora, A. buxbaumii, A. limosa, and A. paniceae, removed from infected inflorescences of 5 Carex host plant species collected from 17 natural Finnish populations, were surveyed by isozyme analysis. The protein e xtracts of individual sori, containing teliospores (smut spores), toge ther with uninfected utricles, were subjected to polyacrylamide gel el ectrophoresis and stained for esterase and four peptidase enzymes. Sin gle sori, representing individual infection units, were sufficient to reveal considerable esterase and peptidase isozyme activities, whereas little or no activity was seen in the control utricle extracts. High levels of genetic variation as expressed by the detection of multiple loci and allelism were recorded between species and various population s, but variation within populations was lower. Peptidase banding patte rns, in particular, proved to be useful in differentiating species: A. heterospora and A. echinospora, parasitic on the same plant, were cle arly distinguished by their isozyme patterns, and the three remaining smuts belonging to the subgenus Proceres could be separated from one a nother. One morphological character, presence of numerous thick intern al swellings in the cell walls of teliospores, seemed to correlate wel l with banding pattern differences in A. heterospora.