Morphological and molecular characterization for a Japanese isolate of tomato powdery mildew Oidium neolycopersici and its host range.

Abstract

A single conidium of tomato powdery mildew was isolated from heavily infected leaves of tomato (cv. Moneymaker) grown in the greenhouse of Kinki University, Nara Prefecture, Japan. It was successively multiplied so the morphological and taxonomic characteristics of the pathogen and its host range under high humidity conditions could be analyzed. The isolate KTP-01 of the tomato powdery mildew optimally developed infection structures at 25°C under continuous illumination of 3500 lx. More than 90% of the conidia germinated and developed moderately lobed appressoria. After forming haustoria, the pathogen elongated secondary hyphae from both appressoria and conidia. The hyphae attached to leaf surfaces by several pairs of appressoria and produced conidiophores with noncatenated conidia. In addition to its morphological similarity to Oidium neolycopersici, the phylogenetic analysis (based on the sequence of internal transcribed spacer regions of rDNA) revealed that KTP-01 could be classified into the same cluster group as O. neolycopersici. In host range studies, KTP-01 produced abundant conidia on the foliage of all tomato cultivars tested and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), and it developed faint colonies accompanied by necrosis on leaves of potato (Solanum tuberosum), red pepper (Capsicum annuum), petunia (Petunia × hybrida), and eggplant (S. melongena). The pathogen did not infect other plant species including Cucurubitaceae plants, which have been reported to be susceptible to some foreign isolates. Thus, the present isolate of the tomato powdery mildew was assigned as O. neolycopersici, a pathotype different from foreign isolates of the pathogen.