Abstract
Phytophthora cinnamomi, the causal agent of Phytophthora Root Rot (PRR) of avocado, is the most serious disease of avocado worldwide. The development of tolerant rootstocks to control PRR has proven to be an effective means to control the disease. However, using traditional breeding approaches can take over a decade to produce results and there has been a limited use to integrate molecular data into breeding efforts. Therefore, the objective of this work was to use amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) to genetically characterize greenhouse selected PRR tolerant rootstocks, some that had been field-tested and others that had not. Sixty-one polymorphic markers were identified among the 83 cultivars/selections tested. Based on UPGMA analysis, extensive genotypic diversity was found with the closest genotypes differing by six markers. No obvious trends were observed based on the cluster analysis with regards to known tolerant and susceptible rootstocks but rootstocks that have been field-tested and determined to be very tolerant rootstocks such as Latas, Dusa, PP14 (Uzi), PP4 (Zentmyer), and PP24 (Steddom) were distributed across the tree. This suggests that the same mechanisms for resistance may not be shared among these various selections. Therefore, these best-performing and most genetically diverse rootstocks will be combined in future breeding efforts to potentially pyramid diverse sources of resistance into future selections.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support of the California Avocado Commission is greatly appreciated as well as all of our current and past grower collaborators. We thank Mary Lu Arpaia, Ben Faber, Gary Bender, and Reuben Hofshi for professional and or technical support. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for helping to improve this manuscript.
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Douhan, G.W., Fuller, E., McKee, B. et al. Genetic diversity analysis of avocado (Persea americana Miller) rootstocks selected under greenhouse conditions for tolerance to phytophthora root rot caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi . Euphytica 182, 209–217 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-011-0433-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-011-0433-y