Biological and genetic characterization of Phytophthora capsici mutants resistant to flumorph

Abstract

Baseline sensitivity to flumorph, a carboxylic acid amide (CAA) fungicide used to control some oomycetes, was examined using 83 Phytophthora capsici isolates, resulting in a unimodal distribution of effective concentration for 50% inhibition of mycelial growth ranging from 0·716 to 1·363, with a mean of 1·033 ± 0·129 μg mL−1. To assess the potential risk of developing flumorph resistance, 13 flumorph‐resistant mutants of P. capsici were obtained using ultraviolet irradiation. Most of these mutants and their progeny had high levels of fitness, including mycelial growth, sporulation and virulence. The resistance to flumorph changed slightly, either increasing or decreasing, after 10 transfers on agar media. Cross‐resistance was found between flumorph and other CAA fungicides (dimethomorph and iprovalicarb), but not between flumorph and non‐CAA fungicides (cymoxanil, metalaxyl, azoxystrobin and cyazofamid). To investigate the genetics of the flumorph resistance, 619 progeny were obtained by self‐crossing and sexual hybridization. Segregation of sensitivity to fungicide was measured as a ratio of sensitive (S) to resistant (R) isolates. Segregation of the progeny, from self‐crossed isolate PCAS1 (flumorph resistant), was 1:15 in the first generation; and 0:1 or 1:15 in the second generation. In sexual hybridization, segregation of progeny was 0:1 and 1:7 for R × R hybridization; and 1:3 for R × S hybridization. Therefore, the resistance of P. capsici against flumorph was controlled by two dominant genes.