Genetic diversity of Phytophthora capsici isolates from pepper and pumpkin in Argentina

Phytophthora capsici is a soilborne oomycete plant pathogen that limits pepper production worldwide. The population structure varies significantly depending on the location (e.g. Peru vs. USA) and little is known about the diversity of P. capsici in Argentina. Our objective was to assess the diversity of P. capsici in Argentina at key pepper production areas. Forty isolates were recovered 2006-2009 from pepper and one isolate from pumpkin at 11 locations. Isolates were assessed for mating type, mefenoxam sensitivity and multilocus single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotype profiles. Ten isolates with identical SNP profiles also were genotyped with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. All 41 isolates had the Al mating type and were sensitive to mefenoxam. Genotypic analysis using eight polymorphic SNP markers indicated 87% of the isolates had the same multilocus genotype, which is fixed for heterozygosity at seven of the eight SNP sites. AFLP analyses confirmed these findings, and overall it appears that clonal reproduction drives the population structure of P. capsici in Argentina. The implications for breeding resistant peppers and overall disease management are discussed.