Persistent, symptomless, systemic, and seed-borne infection of lettuce by Botrytis cinerea

Experiments are presented which show that Botrytis cinerea, the cause of grey mould disease, is often present in symptomless lettuce plants as a systemic, endophytic, infection which may arise from seed. The fungus was isolated on selective media from surface-sterilised sections of roots, stem piece...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of plant pathology 2010, Vol.126 (1), p.61-71
Main Authors: Sowley, Elias N. K, Dewey, Fiona M, Shaw, Michael W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Air flow
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Botrytis cinerea
Conidia
DNA fingerprints
Ecology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Fungal plant pathogens
Fungi
Infections
Leaves
Lettuce
Life Sciences
Original Research
Phytopathology. Animal pests. Plant and forest protection
Plant Pathology
Plant Sciences
Plants
Roots
Seedlings
Selective media
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Experiments are presented which show that Botrytis cinerea, the cause of grey mould disease, is often present in symptomless lettuce plants as a systemic, endophytic, infection which may arise from seed. The fungus was isolated on selective media from surface-sterilised sections of roots, stem pieces and leaf discs from symptomless plants grown in a conventional glasshouse and in a spore-free air-flow provided by an isolation propagator. The presence of B. cinerea was confirmed by immuno-labelling the tissues with the Botrytis-specific monoclonal antibody BC-12.CA4. As plants grew, infection spread from the roots to stems and leaves. Surface-sterilisation of seeds reduced the number of infected symptomless plants. Artificial infection of seedlings with dry conidia increased the rate of infection in some experiments. Selected isolates were genetically finger-printed using microsatellite loci. This confirmed systemic spread of the inoculating isolates but showed that other isolates were also present and that single plants hosted multiple isolates. This shows that B. cinerea commonly grows in lettuce plants as an endophyte, as has already been shown for Primula. If true for other hosts, the endophytic phase may be as important a component of the species population as the aggressive necrotrophic phase.
ISSN:0929-1873
1573-8469
DOI:10.1007/s10658-009-9524-1