摘要 : South American Leaf Blight (SALB) is caused by the Ascomycota fungus Pseudocercospora ulei. This disease is recognized as the main threat to Hevea brasiliensis plantations and the major phytosanitary challenge for the rubber indus... 展开 South American Leaf Blight (SALB) is caused by the Ascomycota fungus Pseudocercospora ulei. This disease is recognized as the main threat to Hevea brasiliensis plantations and the major phytosanitary challenge for the rubber industry in Latin America. Despite this, little is known about the pathogen's genetic diversity and population structure in rubber-producing areas. Characterizing diversity in pathogen populations is essential for understanding their adaptation potential. This information is necessary for developing resistance improvement programs, as it helps estimate Hevea's durable resistance. With this in mind, we characterized P. ulei's genetic diversity and population structure in the northwest of Colombia's Amazon. We used eight microsatellite loci (SSR) to evaluate the pathogens' populations. Samples were obtained from four high-SALB incidence locations planted with the susceptible clone IAN 873. We found high genetic diversity in P. ulei populations. Although there is no evidence showing that sexual reproduction occurs in Caqueta's P. ulei populations, our results suggest that, to some extent, genetic recombination is happening, as is the case for other Pseudocercospora species. Our findings support the idea that while asexual conidia are responsible for propagation within plantations, ascospores play a role in establishing P.ulei populations. More research is necessary to test this idea. Moreover, population structure correlated with different environmental conditions for both clone-corrected (Mantel statistic R = 0.053, p = 0.010) and non-clone-corrected data (Mantel statistic R = 0.060, p = 0.001) suggesting, that climate conditions might be contributing to P. ulei diversification. These results highlight the need to develop rubber plantations' management strategies to reduce pathogen's genetic diversity. This study is the first characterization of P. ulei populations in Colombia and thus, will provide crucial information for the H. brasiliensis resistance improvement program in the region. 收起