NONAGGRESSIVE STRAINS OF THE BLACKLEG FUNGUS, LEPTOSPHAERIA-MACULANS,ARE PRESENT IN AUSTRALIA AND CAN BE DISTINGUISHED FROM AGGRESSIVE STRAINS BY MOLECULAR ANALYSIS
Km. Plummer et al., NONAGGRESSIVE STRAINS OF THE BLACKLEG FUNGUS, LEPTOSPHAERIA-MACULANS,ARE PRESENT IN AUSTRALIA AND CAN BE DISTINGUISHED FROM AGGRESSIVE STRAINS BY MOLECULAR ANALYSIS, Australian Journal of Botany, 42(1), 1994, pp. 1-8
Isolates of the pathogenic ascomycete Leptosphaeria maculans have been
cultured from blackleg-affected oilseed rape (Brassica napus) stubble
from Horsham, Victoria. These isolates are indistinguishable on the b
asis of morphological characters, but can be classified as either aggr
essive or non-aggressive by their ability to infect B. napus cultivars
Midas and Westar. These aggressive and non-aggressive isolates of L.
maculans can be distinguished by molecular techniques including electr
ophoretic karyotyping, Southern analysis of the ribosomal RNA gene rep
eat, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker analysis, and pigm
ent production. The presence of aggressive and non-aggressive strains
of L. maculans in North America and Europe has been previously describ
ed. This is the first report of non-aggressive L. maculans strains iso
lated from B. napus in Australia.