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Toward understanding the pathogenicity of newly described Phytophthora species in Western Australia
Our newly graduated PhD student Rajah Belhaj has recently had a paper published in the journal Plant Pathology. We have a lot of information of the susceptibility of flora in the Southwest of Western Australia to the dieback pathogen, Phytophthora cinnamomi. However, very little is known about the pathogenicity of a suite of newly described Phytophthora species present across the region. In a glasshouse experiment in which the soil of 3-month-old plants was infected with 21 of the new species and P. cinnamomi for comparison, we showed that several of the newly described species can cause death, or significant damage to root or shoot growth of woody host species such as Eucalyptus and Banksia. The species of most concern was P. niederhauserii as this displayed a similar host range to P. cinnamomi. However, five of the new species also killed one or more hosts. Much more needs to be known about the geographic distribution of the new species, to determine the level of threat they impose for our native flora.
The full paper can be found at on Researchgate.
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