Identification of the causal agent of Verticillium wilt of winter oilseed rape in Sweden, V-longisporum

Morphological characters and genetic relationships were studied among 36 Verticillium isolates derived from different host species. Conidial length varied from 3.5 mum to 12 mum and the DNA content ranged from 0.028 pg to 0.078 pg with a bias towards large conidia and higher DNA content among the Swedish and German isolates front Brassica napus. Ability to produce nitrate nonutilising (nit) mutants was also assayed. Of all 36 isolates tested, eight V. dahliae isolates from non-Brassica hosts and two from B. napus, V. nigrescens from flax and V. albo-atrum from tomato generated nit mutants. To facilitate disease diagnosis, a species-specific PCR primer pair was developed, aiming towards a PCR-based analysis to confirm Verticillium wilt infection in Brassica plants. To identify useful DNA templates for the PCR primer design, random genomic clones from isolates VD12 and VD17 were used as probes in RFLP analysis. The RFLP results were also utilized in phenetic analysis and data from 29 isolates revealed three major groups. The first group consisted of seven non-Brassica V. dahliae isolates and the v. nigrescens isolate. The second group contained the two V. albo-atrum isolates and the V. dahliae isolate from red clover. Finally, the third group contained all the 18 isolates of Verticillium from B. napus. In the third group, two Subgroups were identified, separating the three French isolates from the German and Swedish isolates. The dendrogram indicated that the isolates in the latter subgroup were closely related to each other. Based on the above mentioned criteria, we confirm that the isolates of Verticillium from B. napus in Sweden and Germany should be classified as V. longisporum.