Abstract
Gene flow is an important evolutionary force that enables adaptive responses of plant pathogens in response to changes in the environment and plant disease management strategies. In this study, we made a direct inference concerning gene flow in the Irish famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans between two of its hosts (potato and tomato) as well as between China and India. This was done by comparing sequence characteristics of the eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1 alpha (eEF‐1α) gene, generated from 245 P. infestans isolates sampled from two countries and hosts. Consistent with previous results, we found that eEF‐1α gene was highly conserved and point mutation was the only mechanism generating any sequence variation. Higher genetic variation was found in the eEF‐1α sequences in the P. infestans populations sampled from tomato compared to those sampled from potato. We also found the P. infestans population from India displayed a higher genetic variation in the eEF‐1α sequences compared to China. No gene flow was detected between the pathogen populations from the two countries, which is possibly attributed to the geographic barrier caused by Himalaya Plateau and the minimum cross‐border trade of potato and tomato products. The implications of these results for a sustainable management of late blight diseases are discussed.
Highlights
Gene flow, referred to the movement of gametes, genotypes, or extranuclear segments of DNA such as mitochondria from one population to another through migration and hybridization event (Toews, Mandic, Richards, & Irwin, 2013), plays a dual role in the evolution of organisms (Slatkin, 1987)
A total of 245 eEF‐1α sequences were included in the current analysis of population genetic structure in P. infestans
A low genetic variation was found in the eEF‐1α gene
Summary
Gene flow, referred to the movement of gametes, genotypes, or extranuclear segments of DNA such as mitochondria from one population to another through migration and hybridization event (Toews, Mandic, Richards, & Irwin, 2013), plays a dual role in the evolution of organisms (Slatkin, 1987). The accuracy of direct estimations of gene flow by the detection of identical genotypes with molecular technologies is affected by marker resolution and mutation rate. High mutation rate in molecular markers can, on the one hand, facilitate the generation of analogous sequence structures from different ancestry genotypes, leading to an overestimate of gene flow among populations. This sequence convergence has been widely documented in all species kingdoms (Balloux, Lugon‐Moulin, & Hausser, 2000). The objectives of this study were to: (a) investigate population genetic structure of eEL‐1α gene in the late blight pathogen P. infestans; (b) determine the types of sequence variation in eEL‐1α gene; (c) infer the effect of host on the population genetic structure of P. infestans;and (d) infer gene flow of P. infestans between two countries with the largest potato production in the world and its implications for the sustainable management of the late blight disease
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