Isolation and Pathogenicity of Phytophthora Species from Poplar Plantations in Serbia

Ivan Milenković, Nenad Keča, Dragan Karadžić, Zlatan Radulovič, Justyna A. Nowakowska, Tomasz Oszako, Katarzyna Sikora, Tamara Corcobado, Thomas Jung

During a survey in three declining and three healthy poplar plantations in Serbia, six different Phytophthoraspecies were obtained. Phytophthora plurivora was the most common, followed by P. pini, P. polonica, P. lacustris, P. cactorum, and P. gonapodyides. Pathogenicity of all isolated species to four-month and one-year-old cuttings of Populus hybrid clones I-214 and Pánnonia, respectively, was tested using both a soil infestation and stem inoculation test. Isolates of P. polonica, P. × cambivora, P. cryptogea, and P. × serendipitafrom other host plants were included as a comparison. In the soil infestation test, the most aggressive species to clone I-214 were P. plurivora, P. × serendipita, and P. pini. On clone Pánnonia, P. gonapodyides and P. piniwere the most aggressive, both causing 100% mortality, followed by P. cactorum, P. × cambivora, and P. polonica. In the underbark inoculation test, the susceptibility of both poplar clones to the different Phytophthora species was largely similar, as in the soil infestation test, with the exception of P. polonica, which proved to be only weakly pathogenic to poplar bark. The most aggressive species to clone I-214 was P. pini, while on clone Pánnonia, the longest lesions and highest disease incidence were caused by P. gonapodyides. Phytophthora cactorum and P. plurivora were pathogenic to both clones, whereas P. × cambivora showed only weak pathogenicity. The implications of these findings and possible pathways of dispersion of the pathogens are discussed.

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