FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2013) 85, 433-442

Andrea Vannini, Natalia Bruni, Alessia Tomassini, Selma Franceschini and Anna Maria Vettraino (2013)
Pyrosequencing of environmental soil samples reveals biodiversity of the Phytophthora resident community in chestnut forests
FEMS Microbiology Ecology 85 (3), 433-442
Abstract: Pyrosequencing analysis was performed on soils from Italian chestnut groves to evaluate the diversity of the resident Phytophthora community. Sequences analysed with a custom database discriminated 15 pathogenic Phytophthoras including species common to chestnut soils, while a total of nine species were detected with baiting. The two sites studied differed in Phytophthora diversity and the presence of specific taxa responded to specific ecological traits of the sites. Furthermore, some species not previously recorded were represented by a discrete number of reads; among these species, Phytophthora ramorum was detected at both sites. Pyrosequencing was demonstrated to be a very sensitive technique to describe the Phytophthora community in soil and was able to detect species not easy to be isolated from soil with standard baiting techniques. In particular, pyrosequencing is an highly efficient tool for investigating the colonization of new environments by alien species, and for ecological and adaptive studies coupled with biological detection methods. This study represents the first application of pyrosequencing for describing Phytophthoras in environmental soil samples.
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Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Anna Maria Vettraino, Andrea Vannini

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
surveys/sampling/distribution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Phytophthora ramorum		Italy