Local adaptation to temperature in populations and clonal lineages of the Irish potato famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans.

ABSTRACT: Environmental factors such as temperature strongly impact microbial communities. In the current context of global warming, it is therefore crucial to understand the effects of these factors on human, animal, or plant pathogens. Here, we used a common-garden experiment to analyze the thermal responses of three life-history traits (latent period, lesion growth, spore number) in isolates of the potato late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans from different climatic zones. We also used a fitness index (FI) aggregating these traits into a single parameter. The experiments revealed patterns of local adaptation to temperature for several traits and for the FI, both between populations and within clonal lineages. Local adaptation to temperature could result from selection for increased survival

SUBMITTER: Mariette N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5016652 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature