Epiphytic microflora of poplar clones susceptible and resistant to infection by Dothichiza populea

Abstract

One-year-old poplar shoots (nodes, internodes and lenticels) of clones susceptible to infection by the pathogenic fungus Dothichiza populea, viz. Populus nigra Italica and P. Robusta, resistant ones, viz. P. Grandis and P. Hybrida 275, as well as a hybrid of a susceptible and a resistant clone, viz. P. maximowiczii x P. nigra (P. Kórnik 42), were used. The plate method was employed to determine: 1. the abundance of the epiphytic microflora on a mineral medium with glucose; 2. the quantitative composition of epiphytic communities by determining the numbers of typical bacteria (including rod-shaped, spherical and sporulating forms), actinomycetes and yeasts in microscopic preparations from epiphyte colonies; 3. the abundance and level of activity of epiphytes antagonistic towards Dothichiza populea. In all poplar clones the epiphytic microflora was most abundant on nodes and least abundant on lenticels. In the resistant clones epiphytes were 7 (P. Grandis) to as many as 84 times (P. Hybrida 275) less numerous than in the susceptible ones. In the microflora communities of the susceptible poplars, rod-shaped bacteria were the most abundant, and in the resistant ones and the hybrid, yeasts, which made up from 60% to 70% of the strains tested. Spherical and sporulating bacteria as well as actinomycetes were found in numbers not exceeding 4% of the total number of epiphytes. The proportion of antagonistic microflora in whole epiphytic communities was higher in the resistant clones and the hybrid than in the susceptible clones, with the microflora having a more restrictive effect on the development of the pathogen.