Breakdown of a Brassica rapa subsp. sylvestris Single Dominant Blackleg Resistance Gene in B. napus Rapeseed by Leptosphaeria maculans Field Isolates in Australia

Abstract

Blackleg, caused by Leptosphaeria maculans, is a major disease of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) grown in Canada, Europe, and Australia. Cv. Surpass 400 was released in Australia in 2000 as the most resistant cultivar to L. maculans. It carries a single dominant resistance gene from B. rapa subsp. sylvestris. This cultivar usually shows a hypersensitive response to L. maculans characterized by small, dark brown lesions that are necrotic, localized, and without pycnidia on cotyledons, leaves, and stems. However, in 2001 on a Western Australian experimental farm, a small proportion of the lesions on the lower stem and crown region of cv. Surpass 400 were typical of those observed in susceptible cultivars, which were brown, necrotic lesions with a darker margin, but they contained fewer pycnidia. Forty seedlings of cv. Surpass 400 and susceptible cv. Westar were inoculated with pycnidiospore suspensions (106/ml) of each of 18 isolates taken from lesions on cv. Surpass 400. All 18 isolates caused collapse of cotyledons of susceptible cv. Westar. Four of these isolates caused large cotyledon lesions with some pycnidia on cv. Surpass 400. Three of these four isolates were subsequently inoculated onto 60 seedlings per isolate, at each of the four cotyledon lobes of each seedling of the two cultivars. Inoculated plants were assessed for disease severity on cotyledons and transplanted to the field 14 days after inoculation. The cotyledons of inoculated cv. Surpass 400 showed characteristic large, necrotic lesions with pycnidia, while the cotyledons of cv. Westar had collapsed and contained a mass of pycnidia. Blackleg disease severity in the crown region of the stem was assessed at 2 weeks before harvest. Fifty-four percent of the cv. Surpass 400 transplanted inoculated plants subsequently developed susceptible symptoms of crown cankers on stems. These symptoms were deep, girdling, brown lesions on the plant crowns with some pycnidia. One hundred percent of cv. Westar plants were infected and dead at this stage. This confirmed the ability of these field isolates to overcome the single dominant resistance gene present in cv. Surpass 400. To our knowledge, this is the first report of breakdown of a single dominant B. rapa subsp. sylvestris gene based resistance to blackleg in oilseed rape in the field.