Analysis of Genetic Variation in Botrytis cinerea Isolates Using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Markers

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to survey genetic variability among 34 Botrytis cinerea isolates from nine different host plants in Korea. For RAPD analysis, 115 arbitrary decamer primers were initially screened for polymorphic major DNA bands with 11 representative B. cinerea isolates. Eleven primers that initially detected polymorphisms were tested a second time with additional 23 isolates of B. cinerea as well as one isolate of Botrytis squamosa as an outgroup. The RAPD analyses revealed that all isolates except one showed different molecular phenotypes. Dendrograms obtained from dissimilarity matrices using the unweighted paired group method of arithmetic means (UPGMA) showed the 36.4% to 90.0% similarity among all B. cinerea isolates. The B. squamosa isolate showed the least similarity to all B. cinerea isolates. The cluster analyses indicated no correlation among all the characteristics examined including molecular phenotypes, host and geographic origins, year of isolation, or pathogenicity. The RAPD data suggest that a high level of genetic variation exists among Korean populations of B. cinerea and it seems to be caused by heterokaryosis among preexisting molecular phenotypes.