Lack of gene flow between Phytophthora infestans populations of two neighboring countries with the largest potato production

Yan-Ping Wang; Jia-Hui Xie; E-Jiao Wu; Lurwanu Yahuza; Guo-Hua Duan; Lin-Lin Shen; Hao Liu; Shi-Hao Zhou; Oswald Nkurikiyimfura; Björn Andersson; Li-Na Yang; Li-Ping Shang; Wen Zhu; Jiasui Zhan

doi:10.1111/eva.12870

Lack of gene flow between Phytophthora infestans populations of two neighboring countries with the largest potato production

Evol Appl. 2019 Sep 28;13(2):318-329. doi: 10.1111/eva.12870. eCollection 2020 Feb.

Authors

Yan-Ping Wang^{1

2}, Jia-Hui Xie^{1

2}, E-Jiao Wu^{1

2}, Lurwanu Yahuza^{1

2}, Guo-Hua Duan^{1

2}, Lin-Lin Shen^{1

2}, Hao Liu^{1

2}, Shi-Hao Zhou^{1

2}, Oswald Nkurikiyimfura^{1

2}, Björn Andersson³, Li-Na Yang^{1

2}, Li-Ping Shang^{1

2}, Wen Zhu^{1

2}, Jiasui Zhan^{4

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou China.
² Fujian Key Laboratory of Plant Virology Institute of Plant Virology Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou China.
³ Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala Sweden.
⁴ Key Lab for Biopesticide and Chemical Biology Ministry of Education Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou China.

Abstract

Gene flow is an important evolutionary force that enables adaptive responses of plant pathogens in response to changes in the environment and plant disease management strategies. In this study, we made a direct inference concerning gene flow in the Irish famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans between two of its hosts (potato and tomato) as well as between China and India. This was done by comparing sequence characteristics of the eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1 alpha (eEF-1α) gene, generated from 245 P. infestans isolates sampled from two countries and hosts. Consistent with previous results, we found that eEF-1α gene was highly conserved and point mutation was the only mechanism generating any sequence variation. Higher genetic variation was found in the eEF-1α sequences in the P. infestans populations sampled from tomato compared to those sampled from potato. We also found the P. infestans population from India displayed a higher genetic variation in the eEF-1α sequences compared to China. No gene flow was detected between the pathogen populations from the two countries, which is possibly attributed to the geographic barrier caused by Himalaya Plateau and the minimum cross-border trade of potato and tomato products. The implications of these results for a sustainable management of late blight diseases are discussed.

Keywords: Phytophthora infestans; elongation factor‐1α (eEF‐1α); haplotype network; phylogenetic analysis; population connectivity; population genetic structure.