Morphology, Pathogenicity and Molecular analysis of Alternaria Isolates from Solanaceous Crops (oral)

More than 30 isolates of Alternaria were obtained from various solanaceous crops in Korea. For all isolates, morphological characteristics of the conidia were determined and compared with those of representative isolates of A. solani and A. tomatophila. Pathogenicity test was performed to Potato, tomato, egg plant and red Pepper and molecular characteristics of them including the representative isolates were determined using sequence analyses of ITS rDNA and histone H3 gene, and URP-PCR analysis. Based on morphological characteristics, the isolates from the solanaceous crops were grouped as identical or very similar to either A. tomatophila(ATO), A. solani(ASO), and unidentified Altemaria sp.(ASP). Among the molecular markers used in this study, the URP-PCR analysis was found to be appropriate for taxonomic resolution of these species. Based on the conidial morphology, pathogenicity test and molecular characteristics, A. tomatophila(early blight of tomato) could be distinguished from A. solani(early blight of potato), and the Alternaria sp.(ASP) from potato, which was closely related to A. solani in conidial morphology, was considered as a new species.