Reduced sensitivity of Botrytis cinerea to two sterol biosynthesis-inhibiting fungicides: fenetrazole and fenethanil

Isolates of Botrytis cinerea having reduced sensitivity to the sterol biosynthesis-inhibiting (SBI) fungicides fenetrazole and fenethanil were obtained from one out of four sites from which isolates were tested. Reduced sensitivity was associated with poor disease control by fenetrazole, which had been applied with dichlofluanid. Conidial germination and hyphal growth of B. cinerea from the four sites were tested in vitro on media amended with the fungicides. Following fenetrazole or fenethanil treatment, at the site where control had failed, populations of B. cinerea were detected with higher EC₅₀ and EC₉₀ values than at the three other sites. Germination of conidia of B. cinerea was markedly inhibited by 1.0 μg/ml fenetrazole and 0.5–1.0 μg/ml fenethanil. The frequency of isolates insensitive to 1.0 μg/ml fenetrazole or to 0.5 μg/ml fenethanil was 3.4 and 1.8 times higher, respectively, at the site where control had failed, compared with another site where SBI fungicides had never been applied to control grey mould. Grey mould caused by selected isolates of B. cinerea which expressed the phenotype of low sensitivity to SBI fungicides in leaves of tomato, pepper and Senecio cineraria was not controlled by either fenetrazole or fenethanil (1 .5–3.0 μg/ml). However, up to 100% disease reduction was obtained when leaves infected by sensitive isolates were treated with the fungicides.