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. 2023 May 27;9(6):619.
doi: 10.3390/jof9060619.

High Genetic Diversity and Structure of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides s.l. in the Archipelago of Lesser Antilles

Pauline Dentika  1 , Jean-Marc Blazy  1 , Angela Alleyne  2 , Dalila Petro  1 , Anderson Eversley  3 , Laurent Penet  1
Affiliations

High Genetic Diversity and Structure of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides s.l. in the Archipelago of Lesser Antilles

Pauline Dentika et al. J Fungi (Basel). .

Abstract

Colletotrichum gloeosporioides is a species complex of agricultural importance as it causes anthracnose disease on many crop species worldwide, and strong impact regionally on Water Yam (Dioscorea alata) in the Caribbean. In this study, we conducted a genetic analysis of the fungi complex in three islands of the Lesser Antilles-Guadeloupe (Basse Terre, Grande Terre and Marie Galante), Martinique and Barbados. We specifically sampled yam fields and assessed the genetic diversity of strains with four microsatellite markers. We found a very high genetic diversity of all strains on each island, and intermediate to strong levels of genetic structure between islands. Migration rates were quite diverse either within (local dispersal) or between islands (long-distance dispersal), suggesting important roles of vegetation and climate as local barriers, and winds as an important factor in long-distance migration. Three distinct genetic clusters highlighted different species entities, though there was also evidence of frequent intermediates between two clusters, suggesting recurrent recombination between putative species. Together, these results demonstrated asymmetries in gene flow both between islands and clusters, and suggested the need for new approaches to anthracnose disease risk control at a regional level.

Keywords: Caribbean; Colletotrichum gloeosporioides complex; archipelago; biogeography; pathogen dispersal; yam anthracnose.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Variation in allelic diversity among study islands. Example from locus Cg150, truncated for alleles over #25 (all are rare alleles mostly from Barbados).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Gene flow for Colletotrichum gloeosporioides among study islands. Upper values represent pairwise Fst estimates between populations. Lower values are estimated annual number of migrant spores among islands. Flows are encoded both via colour (light grey = low migration rate, dark grey = intermediate migration rate, black = high migration rate) and dash lines (small dash line = low migration rate, medium dash line = intermediate migration rate, plain line = high migration rate). Significant gene flows are thus Barbados to Marie-Galante and Marie Galante to Grande Terre. Auto-arrows represent flow within populations (yam fields within island) and follow the colour code described above. Islands are not following geographic arrangement for the sake of clarity (actual geographic arrangement on the right map). Scale for Guadeloupe (Upper Island) is 20 km, scale for Martinique (lower left) is 15 km, and scale for Barbados (lower right) is 10 km. Islands are grossly at scale comparatively to each other. Scale for the Lesser Antilles is 200 km.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Genetic clusters based on genotypic composition of study strains. Black colour illustrates Guadeloupean strains, blue colour strains from Martinique and orange strains from Barbados. Labels represent sample field, so that different strains may share the same label if they were sampled together in the same field.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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