Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Population structure of the fungal pathogen Holocryphia eucalypti in Australia and South Africa

  • Published:
Australasian Plant Pathology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Holocryphia eucalypti is a fungal pathogen that causes stem cankers on Eucalyptus species in South Africa and Australia. In South Africa it is considered opportunistic but in Australia it has been associated with occasional but serious disease problems. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic structure of a South African population of H. eucalypti and compare it with three Australian populations of the fungus. Seventy-two isolates from Eucalyptus spp. and clones in South Africa were compared with 30 isolates from E. globulus and 24 isolates from Corymbia calophylla in the south of Western Australia and 23 isolates from E. dunnii in eastern Australia.DNA of these isolates was amplified using eight pairs of microsatellite markers previously developed for H. eucalypti. Nei’s gene diversity (H) showed that the eastern Australian population is the most genetically diverse and the Western Australian populations from Corymbia and Eucalyptus are somewhat less diverse. The South African population displayed the lowest genetic diversity. The high genetic diversity in the Australian populations supports the view that H. eucalypti is native to that region and was introduced into South Africa.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agapow P-M, Burt A (2001) Multilocus 1.2. Available at http://www.bio.ic.ac.uk/evolve/software/multilocus [Verified 18 January 2008]

  • Anon. (2006) Forestry South Africa. Forestry 8FP Industry Facts 2005. Available at http://www.forestry.co.za [Verified 18 January 2008]

  • Barnes I, Nakabonge G, Roux J, Wingfield BD, Wingfield MJ (2005) Comparison of populations of the wilt pathogen Ceratocystis albifundus in South Africa and Uganda. Plant Pathology 54, 189–195. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3059.2005.01144.x

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barton NH, Charlesworth B (1984) Genetic revolutions, founder effects, and speciation. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 15, 133–164. doi: 10.1146/annurev.es.15.110184.001025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beadle NCW (1981) ‘The vegetation of Australia.’ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge)

    Google Scholar 

  • Boland DJ, Brooker MIH, Chippendale GM, Hall N, Hyland BPM, Johnston RD, Kleinig DA, Turner JD (1984) ‘Forest trees of Australia.’ (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne)

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess T, Gordon TR, Wingfield MJ, Wingfield BD (2004a) Geographic isolation of Diplodia scrobiculata and its association with native Pinus radiata. Mycological Research 108, 1399–1406. doi: 10.1017/S0953756204001443

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burgess T, Wingfield MJ, Wingfield BD (2004b) Global distribution of Diplodia pinea genotypes as revealed using SSR markers. Australasian Plant Pathology 33, 513–519. doi: 10.1071/AP04067

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carnegie AJ (2007) Forest health condition in New South Wales, Australia, 1996–2005. II. Fungal damage recorded in eucalypt plantations during forest health surveys and their management. Australasian Plant Pathology 36, 225–239. doi: 10.1071/AP07021

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cockerham CC, Weir BS (1993) Estimation of gene flow from F-statistics. Evolution 47, 855–863. doi: 10.2307/2410189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davison EM, Coates DJ (1991) Identification of Cryphonectria cubensis and Endothia gyrosa from eucalypts in Western Australia using isozyme analysis. Australasian Plant Pathology 20, 157–160. doi: 10.1071/APP9910157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denison NP, Kietzka JE (1993) The use and importance of hybrid intensive forestry in South Africa. South African Forestry Journal 165, 55–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gryzenhout M, Eisenberg BE, Coutinho TA, Wingfield BD, Wingfield MJ (2003) Pathogenicity of Cryphonectria eucalypti to Eucalyptus clones in South Africa. Forest Ecology and Management 176, 427–437. doi: 10.1016/S0378-1127(02)00309-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gryzenhout M, Myburg H, Hodges CS, Wingfield BD, Wingfield MJ (2006) Microthia and Holocryphia, two new genera of fungi from Eucalyptus representing the species previously known as Cryphonectria havanensis and Cryphonectria eucalypti. Studies in Mycology 55, 35–52.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson T (2004) Environmental factors and host characteristics influencing the susceptibility of Eucalyptus globulus to Endothiella eucalypti in southwestern Australia. PhD Thesis, Murdoch University, Perth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar S, Tamura K, Jakobsen IB, Nei M (2001) ‘MEGA2: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis software.’ (Arizona State University: Tempe, AZ)

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald BA (1997) The population genetics of fungi. Tools and techniques. Phytopathology 87, 448–453. doi: 10.1094/PHYTO.1997.87.4.448

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McDonald BA, Linde C (2002) The population genetics of plant pathogens and breeding strategies for durable resistance. Euphytica 124, 163–180. doi: 10.1023/A:1015678432355

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McDonald BA, McDermott JM (1993) Population genetics of plant pathogenic fungi. Bioscience 43, 311–319. doi: 10.2307/1312063

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDonald BA, Miles J, Nelson LR, Pettway RE (1994) Genetic variability in nuclear DNA in field populations of Stagonospora nodorum. Phytopathology 84, 250–255. doi: 10.1094/Phyto-84-250

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Milgroom MG, Fry WE (1997) Contributions of population genetics to plant disease epidemiology and management. Advances in Botanical Research 24, 1–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milgroom MG, Lipari SE, Ennos RA, Liu Y-C (1993) Estimation of the outcrossing rate in the chestnut blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. Heredity 70, 385–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakabonge G, Cortinas MN, Roux J, Gryzenhout M, Wingfield BD, Wingfield MJ (2005) Development of polymorphic microsatellite markers for the fungal tree pathogen Cryphonectria eucalypti. Molecular Ecology Notes 5, 558–561. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2005. 00990.x

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • National Forest Inventory (2007) ‘Australia’s plantations 2007 — inventory update.’ (Bureau of Rural Sciences: Canberra)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nei M (1972) Genetic distance between populations. American Naturalist 106, 283–292. doi: 10.1086/282771

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nei M (1973) Analysis of gene diversity in subdivided populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 70, 3321–3323. doi: 10.1073/pnas.70.12.3321

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Old KM, Murray DIL, Kile GA, Simpson J, Malafant KWJ (1986) The pathology of fungi isolated from eucalypt cankers in south-eastern Australia. Australian Forest Research 16, 21–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoddart JA, Taylor JF (1988) Genotypic diversity: estimation and prediction in samples. Genetics 118, 705–711.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JW, Jacobson DJ, Fisher MC (1999) The evolution of asexual fungi: reproduction, speciation and classification. Annual Review of Phytopathology 37, 197–246. doi: 10.1146/annurev.phyto.37.1.197

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Westhuizen IP, Wingfield MJ, Kemp GHJ, Swart WJ (1993) First report of the canker pathogen Endothia gyrosa on Eucalyptus in South Africa. Plant Pathology 42, 661–663. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3059.1993. tb01548.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Venter M, Myburg H, Wingfield BD, Coutinho TA, Wingfield MJ (2002) A new species of Cryphonectria from South Africa and Australia, pathogenic to Eucalyptus. Sydowia 54, 98–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker J, Old KM, Murray DIL (1985) Endothia gyrosa on Eucalyptus in Australia with notes on some other species of Endothia and Cryphonectria. Mycotaxon 23, 353–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wardlaw TJ (1999) Endothia gyrosa associated with severe stem cankers on plantation grown Eucalyptus nitens in Tasmania. European Journal of Forest Pathology 29, 199–208. doi: 10.1046/j.1439-0329.1999.00143.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weir BS (1996) Intraspecific differentiation. In ‘Molecular systematics’. 2nd edn. (Eds DM Hillis, C Moritz, B Mable) pp. 385–405. (Sinauer: Sunderland, MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wingfield MJ (2003) Daniel McAlpine Memorial Lecture. Increasing threat of diseases to exotic plantation forests in the Southern Hemisphere: lessons from Cryphonectria canker. Australasian Plant Pathology 32, 133–139. doi: 10.1071/AP03024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wingfield MJ, Roux J (2000) Plantation diseases of South African forest plantations. In ‘South African forestry handbook. 1’. (Ed. DL Owen) pp. 241–252. (The South African Forestry Institute: Menlo Park, Republic of South Africa)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wingfield MJ, Roux J, Coutinho T, Govender P, Wingfield BD (2001) Plantation disease and pest management in the next century. Southern African Forestry Journal 190, 67–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Workman PL, Niswander JD (1970) Population studies on south western Indian tribes. II. Local genetic differentiation in the Papago. American Journal of Human Genetics 22, 24–49.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yeh FC, Yang R-C, Boyle T (1999) ‘POPGENE. Release 1.31. Microsoft windows-based freeware for population genetic analysis.’ (University of Alberta: Edmonton)

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuan ZQ, Mohammed CL (1997) Investigation of fungi associated with stem cankers of eucalypts in Tasmania, Australia. Australasian Plant Pathology 26, 78–84. doi: 10.1071/AP97013

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Tree Protection Cooperative Program, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, 0002, Pretoria, South Africa

    Grace Nakabonge, Treena Burgess, Marieka Gryzenhout, Michael J. Wingfield & Jolanda Roux

  2. Department of Genetics, Tree Protection Cooperative Program, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, 0002, Pretoria, South Africa

    Brenda Wingfield

  3. School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Murdoch University, 6150, Perth, WA, Australia

    Treena Burgess

Authors
  1. Grace Nakabonge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Treena Burgess
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marieka Gryzenhout
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Brenda Wingfield
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Michael J. Wingfield
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jolanda Roux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jolanda Roux.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nakabonge, G., Burgess, T., Gryzenhout, M. et al. Population structure of the fungal pathogen Holocryphia eucalypti in Australia and South Africa. Australasian Plant Pathology 37, 154–161 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1071/AP08004

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/AP08004

Additional keywords

Search

Navigation