Influence of Inoculum Concentration on Production of Spermogonia and Aecia on Pine Seedlings Infected by Basidiospores of Cronartium quercuum f. sp. fusiforme

Seedlings of slash pine and loblolly pine inoculated with four concentrations of basidiospores of Cronartium quercuum f. sp. fusiforme and exhibiting large galls (≥25 mm long) were observed for spermogonial and aecial sporulation. Basidiospores from a genetically heterogeneous source at 50, 100, 1,000 and 5,000 spores/5-μl droplet were applied to the severed, succulent terminal of 6-week-old seedlings. Incidence of sporulation showing (i) spermatia (pycniospores) only, (ii) aeciospores only, (iii) spermatia and aeciospores, and (iv) absence of sporulation was recorded for 3 years. On slash pine, the percentage of seedlings showing only spermatia varied significantly and inversely with inoculum concentration. In contrast, the percentage of seedlings showing only aeciospores or aeciospores and spermatia varied directly with inoculum concentration. Results on loblolly pine were similar. It is suggested that, at low inoculum concentrations, hyphal anastomoses are limited by fewer haploid mycelia in infected tissues or fewer mating types resulting from incompatible host-parasite interactions.

Evidence of Cytoplasmic Inheritance of Virulence in Cronartium ribicola to Major Gene Resistance in Sugar Pine

ABSTRACT Tests for Mendelian segregation of virulence and avirulence in Cronartium ribicola, causal agent of white pine blister rust, to a major gene (R) for resistance in sugar pine were made using haploid basidiospore progenies from single diploid telia as inoculum on resistant genotypes. The telia were sampled from a small deme in the Siskyou Mountains of northern California, where a few mature sugar pines known to be Rr genotypes had become infected after withstanding the chronic blister rust epidemic for several decades and where intermediate frequencies of virulence in the ambient basidiospore population were subsequently measured. Infection type on inoculated seedlings with R was qualitative: all progenies of 81 single telia tested over 3 different years were either virulent (compatible) or avirulent (inducing hypersensitive necrosis), never a mixture of both reactions. The complete absence of heterozygotes in the telia population is strong evidence that virulence is not controlled by a nuclear gene. The data are consistent with earlier tests showing that basidiospore inoculum derived from aeciospores isolated from infected Rr trees produced mostly (>90%) virulent reactions on R- seedlings. The evidence indicates that transmission of virulence is uniparental via the cytoplasm of aeciospores. Exchange of spermatia between haploid thalli does not appear to be involved.