Research article2009Peer reviewedOpen access
Dothistromin toxin is not required for dothistroma needle blight in Pinus radiata
Schwelm, A.; Barron, N. J.; Baker, J.; Dick, M.; Long, P. G.; Zhang, S.; Bradshaw, R. E.
Abstract
The pine needle blight pathogen Dothistroma septosporum produces a polyketide toxin, dothistromin. This paper reports that loss of the ability to produce dothistromin did not affect the pathogenicity of D. septosporum to Pinus radiata in a laboratory-based pathogenicity test. However, dothistromin synthesis provided an advantage to the D. septosporum wild-type, compared to dothistromin-deficient mutants, in growth competition with other fungi in vitro. Other pine-needle inhabitants, such as the latent pathogen Cyclaneusma minus and the endophyte Lophodermium conigenum, were inhibited by dothistromin-producing D. septosporum. Therefore, it was concluded that dothistromin is not a pathogenicity factor, but that it may play a role in competition of D. septosporum with other fungi in its ecological niche.
Keywords
Dothistroma septosporum; green fluorescent protein; inter-fungal competition; Mycosphaerella pini; mycotoxin; red band needle blight
Published in
Plant Pathology
2009, volume: 58, number: 2, pages: 293-304
UKÄ Subject classification
Botany
Forest Science
Publication identifier
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3059.2008.01948.x
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/84708