Microsatellite primers indicate the presence of asexual populations ofVenturia inaequalis in coastal Israeli apple orchards

This study was initiated to determine whether differences in genotypic diversity among populations ofVenturia inaequalis (Cke.) Wint., as detected using neutral genetic markers, were related to the ecological conditions in which apples are grown in Israel. Since sexual reproduction in this fungal pathogen has an obligate requirement for sustained low winter temperatures, and since these requirements in Israel are met only on the Golan Heights, we were interested in whether lower elevation populations of this pathogen might be comprised of asexual clonal lineages. Unlike temperate apple growing regions, where the primary spring inoculum is ascosporic derived from overwintered pseudothecia, Israeli apple orchards at lower elevations in the Hula Valley and along the coastal plain rarely if ever experience low winter temperatures and pseudothecia have never been recovered. Two orchards were sampled from the Golan Heights (El Rom and Ortal, n=38) and three orchards from the Hula Valley and coastal plain (Sede Eliezer, Ginaton and Be’er Tuvia, n=40). Microsatellite primers were used to analyze population structure and the resulting binary data analyzed by both cluster and parsimony analysis. Populations from the coastal plain were genetically uniform within each of the orchards sampled, whereas populations from the Golan Heights showed levels of genotypic diversity ten times as high. The data support field observations that this pathogen does not reproduce sexually in regions characterized by the absence of low winter temperatures and is instead composed of clonal lineages. This may have bearing on control strategies for the disease in Israel. http://www.phytoparasitica.org posting April 21, 2003.