Population Dynamics and Fitness Comparison of Sensitive and Resistant Phenotypes of Botrytis cinerea to Benzimidazole, Dicarboximide, and N-phenylar-bamate Fungicides

A total of 2109 isolates of Botrytis cinerea were collected from infected plants fo strawberry, tomato, and cucumber in Korea from 1994 to 1996. Based on in virtotests for mycelial growth on potato-dextrose agar containing fungicides, the esolates were classified into six phenotypic groups : SSR, SRR, RSS, RRS, RSR, and RRR, representing sensitivity (S) or resistance (R) to carbendazim, procymidone, and diethofencarb. In that order the isolation frequencies of the SSR, SRR, RSS, RRS, RSR, and RRR phenotypes were 28.7, 1.1, 28.8, 39.4, 1.0, and 0.9%, respectively. Three isolates from each SSR, SRR, RSS, RRS, and RSR and an isolate of RRR phenotype were selected and evaluated for their fitness-related characteristics such as pathogenic aggressiveness, mycelial growth rate, sporulation, and sclerotial formation. Competitive abilities of the SSR, SRR, RSS, RRS, and RSR phenotypes were also compared by inculating mixtures of conidial suspensions of two phenotypes to cucumber plant, and then determining re-isolation frequencies from lesions. In general, significant differences in fitness-related characteristics, except pathogenic aggressiveness, were found not only between but also within phenotype groups. In the competitiveness tests, carbendazim-sinsitive phenotypes (SSR and SRR) were found to be more competitive than the resistant ones (RSS and RSR), whereas, the procymidone-resistant phenotypes (SRR and RRS) appeared to be more competitive than the sensitive ones (SSR, RSS, and RSR). There was no consistent dominance in competitiveness between the diethofencarb-resistant and sensitive phenotypes. The RSR phenotype was the least competitive among the five phenotypes.