Temperature-Mediated Plasticity Regulates the Adaptation of Phytophthora infestans to Azoxystrobin Fungicide

Yahuza Lurwanu, Yan-Ping Wang, Waheed Abdul, Jiasui Zhan and Li-Na Yang
Additional contact information
Yahuza Lurwanu: Key Lab for Bio Pesticide and Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Yan-Ping Wang: Key Lab for Bio Pesticide and Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Waheed Abdul: Key Lab for Bio Pesticide and Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Jiasui Zhan: Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-75007 Uppsala, Sweden
Li-Na Yang: State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: Fungicide is one of the main approaches used in agriculture to manage plant diseases for food production, but their effectiveness can be reduced due to the evolution of plant pathogens. Understanding the genetics and evolutionary processes responsible for the development of fungicide resistance is a key to food production and social sustainability. In this study, we used a common garden experiment to examine the source of genetic variation, natural selection, and temperature contributing to the development of azoxystrobin resistance in Phytophthora infestans and infer sustainable ways of plant disease management in future. We found that plasticity contributed to ~40% of phenotypic variation in azoxystrobin sensitivity while heritability accounted for 16%. Further analysis indicated that overall population differentiation in azoxystrobin sensitivity (Q ST ) was significantly greater than the overall population differentiation in simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker (F ST ), and the P. infestans isolates demonstrated higher level of azoxystrobin sensitivity at the higher experimental temperature. These results suggest that changes in target gene expression, enzymatic activity, or metabolic rate of P. infestans play a more important role in the adaptation of the pathogen to azoxystrobin resistance than that of mutations in target genes. The development of azoxystrobin resistance in P. infestans is likely driven by diversifying selection for local adaptation, and elevated temperature associated with global warming in the future may increase the effectiveness of using azoxystrobin to manage P. infestans. The sustainable approaches for increasing disease control effectiveness and minimizing the erosion of the fungicide efficacy are proposed.

Keywords: fungicide efficacy; Q ST /F ST comparisons; Phytophthora infestans; sustainable disease management; diversifying selection; global warming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1188/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1188/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:1188-:d:317514

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().