Determining the Novel Pathogen Neodothiora populina as the Causal Agent of the Aspen Running Canker Disease in Alaska

Authors

Loretta M. Winton, USDA Forest Service, Fairbanks, AlaskaFollow
Gerard C. Adams, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Roger W. Ruess, University of Alaska, FairbanksFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2022

Citation

Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 44:1 (2022), pp. 103–114.

doi: 10.1080/07060661.2021.1952487

Comments

US government work--public domain

Abstract

Neodothiora populina Crous, G.C. Adams & Winton was determined to be a new pathogen of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) growing in Alaska, based on completion of Koch's Postulates in replicated forest and growth chamber inoculation trials. The pathogen is responsible for severe damage and widespread rapid mortality of sapling to mature aspen (≥ 80 years) in the boreal forests of interior Alaska, due to large diffuse annual (1–2 years) cankers. Isolation of the pathogen was challenging, and identification based on cultural characters was difficult. Fruiting bodies were not found on wild diseased trees, but erumpent pycnidia were found in bark overlying cankers on several stems inoculated with pure cultures.