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Puccinia komarovii var. glanduliferae var. nov.: a fungal agent for the biological control of Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera)

European Journal of Plant Pathology volume 141, pages 247–266 (2015)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 10 June 2015

Abstract

Clearly defining the taxonomic identity of a potential biocontrol agent is an essential component of any biological control programme. As part of such a programme against Impatiens glandulifera, a highly invasive annual weed in both Europe and North America, the rust fungus Puccinia komarovii was collected on this host plant in its native Himalayan range. However, current literature indicates that P. komarovii is a pathogen of a number of Impatiens species globally and was described originally from I. parviflora, a species native to Asia and now naturalized in Europe. Morphological comparisons, based on urediniospore and teliospore measurements, were generally inconclusive in showing any clear differences between the accession from I. glandulifera and those from other Impatiens species. Both, nrDNA ITS and ITS2-LSU sequence analyses indicated a difference between the rust infecting I. glandulifera compared to accessions on other hosts. However, the large variations in both ITS and 28S (ITS2-LSU) sequences determined within single accessions in this study, makes a clear separation difficult. Cross-inoculation experiments, using one accession of P. komarovii ex I. glandulifera (from India) and two accessions of P. komarovii ex I. parviflora (from China and Hungary), confirmed the specificity of these strains to their original hosts. Two Himalayan Impatiens species, I. scabrida and I. brachycentra, showed varying levels of susceptibility to these rust accessions, where the former was weakly susceptible to all three accessions and the latter was weakly susceptible only to P. komarovii ex I. parviflora (from China). However, commercial cultivars of I. balsamina proved to be fully susceptible to all rust accessions, although this has not been demonstrated under field conditions in India. Based on these host specificity differences between the rust accessions, we propose a new variety: Puccinia komarovii var. glanduliferae var. nov. associated with I. glandulifera in the Himalayas.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the UK Environment Agency, the Scottish Executive, West Country Rivers Trust and Network Rail for funding this research. We would like to thank Dr. Rajesh Kumar (National Fungal Culture Collection of India) and Dr. Usha Dev, Jyoti Bhardwaj (National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, India) for assisting in the field collections in the Indian Himalayas. We thank our CABI colleagues in our offices in India and Pakistan, and Dr. PC Agrawal (National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, India), for working to facilitate surveys and export of biological material from the Himalaya. We are also grateful to Dr. C. Uma Maheswari and Dr. Nita Mathur (Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute) for the original identification of the rust from Impatiens glandulifera from the Indian Himalayas. We would also like to thank Kate Pollard (CABI) for technical assistance during this research. ZB acknowledges the support of János Bolyai Research Scholarships of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CABI, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9TY, UK

    Robert A. Tanner, Carol A. Ellison, Marion K. Seier, Sonal Varia, Djami Djeddour & Harry C. Evans

  2. Plant Protection Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), 1525, Budapest, P.O. Box 102, Hungary

    Gábor M. Kovács, Edit Kassai-Jáger, Zsolt Berecky & Levente Kiss

  3. Institute of Biology, Department of Plant Anatomy, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest, Hungary

    Gábor M. Kovács

  4. Faculty of Health Sciences, Institute of Health Promotion and Clinical Methodology, Department of Epidemiology, Semmelweis University, 1085, Üllői út 26, Budapest, Hungary

    Edit Kassai-Jáger

  5. National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India

    Mool Chand Singh

  6. Department of Botany and Nature Conservation, Faculty of Forestry, University of West Hungary, Sopron, Hungary

    Ágnes Csiszár

  7. Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Budapest, Hungary

    Péter Csontos

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  1. Robert A. Tanner
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Tanner, R.A., Ellison, C.A., Seier, M.K. et al. Puccinia komarovii var. glanduliferae var. nov.: a fungal agent for the biological control of Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera). Eur J Plant Pathol 141, 247–266 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-014-0539-x

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Keywords

  • Cross inoculation studies
  • Invasive weeds
  • ITS and 28S sequence analyses
  • nrDNA variation
  • Rust fungi
  • Taxonomy