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Interspecific and intraspecific diversity in oak powdery mildews in Europe: coevolution history and adaptation to their hosts

Mycoscience volume 52, pages 165–173 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

Quercus has been reported as the genus with the largest number of attacking powdery mildews. In Europe, oak powdery mildew was rarely reported before 1907, when severe outbreaks were observed. These epidemics were attributed to the newly described species Erysiphe alphitoides, presumed to be of exotic origin. After the burst of interest following the emergence of the disease, research on this topic remained very limited. Interest in research was recently reactivated in response to the availability of molecular tools. This review summarizes current knowledge on the diversity of oak powdery mildews in Europe and their possible evolutionary relationships with European oaks. The most striking results are the evidence of cryptic diversity (detection in France of a lineage closely related to Erysiphe quercicola, previously thought to only have an Asian distribution), large host range (similarity of E. alphitoides and E. quercicola with powdery mildews of tropical plants) but also local adaptation to Quercus robur. These recent findings highlight the complexity of the history of oak powdery mildew in Europe and point to the question of host specialization and host jumps in the evolution of powdery mildew fungi.

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Acknowledgments

Nicolas Feau has benefited from a fellowship from INRA, Department of Ecology of Forests, Grasslands and Freshwater Ecosystems, and Amira Mougou-Hamdane from the Tunisian government. Grants from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) for the DRYADE project (Vulnérabilité, Milieux et Climat programme) and from the Ministry of Agriculture (DGFAR) are gratefully acknowledged. We thank two anonymous reviewers for improving the manuscript.

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  1. Pathologie forestière, INRA, UMR 1202 BIOGECO, 33610, Cestas, France

    Marie-Laure Desprez-Loustau, Nicolas Feau, Amira Mougou-Hamdane & Cyril Dutech

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  1. Marie-Laure Desprez-Loustau
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  2. Nicolas Feau
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  3. Amira Mougou-Hamdane
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Correspondence to Marie-Laure Desprez-Loustau.

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Desprez-Loustau, ML., Feau, N., Mougou-Hamdane, A. et al. Interspecific and intraspecific diversity in oak powdery mildews in Europe: coevolution history and adaptation to their hosts. Mycoscience 52, 165–173 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10267-010-0100-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10267-010-0100-5

Keywords

  • Erysiphe alphitoides
  • Erysiphe quercicola
  • Host range
  • Local adaptation
  • Phyllactinia roboris