Mountain pine beetle associated blue-stain fungi cause lesions on jack pine, lodgepole pine, and lodgepole x jack pine hybrids in Alberta

Mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins; (MPB)) have spread into lodgepole x jack pine hybrid (Pinus contorta Douglas x Pinus banksiana Lambert) forests in Alberta and are predicted to spread into jack pine forests. Their success in these forests is uncertain but will be influenced by multiple factors, including the ability of their associated blue-stain fungi to colonize the trees and the health of the encountered trees. Healthy and dwarf mistletoe infected pines at three sites across Alberta (one site per pine species) were inoculated with three isolates each of Grosmannia clavigera (Robinson-Jeffrey and Davidson) Zipfel, de Beer and Wingfield and Ophiostoma montium (Rumbold) von Arx. Both fungi grew and caused lesions on all hosts, suggesting that MPB will not be limited by a lack of fungal growth. Both fungi caused longer lesions in jack and hybrid pines than in lodgepole pines, indicating that susceptibility varies among hosts and is greater in the novel systems than in the co-evolved one. G. clavigera caused longer lesions than O. montium in hybrids and lodgepole pines, while the two species caused similar-sized lesions on jack pine. Intraspecific variation was high in G. clavigera, with one isolate producing much shorter lesions than the other two. Dwarf mistletoe infestation had little effect on infection lesion length.