Occurrence of potato pink rot caused by Phytophthora erythroseptica in Turkey, with special reference to Phytophthora cryptogea

Abstract

Potato pink rot, caused by Phytophthora erythroseptica, occurs in many potato growing countries having cool and humid climates, sometimes producing high rates of crop loss. Recently, a new Phytophthora species has been isolated from potato tubers grown in a 5 ha field for certified seed and showing pink rot symptoms by using a Phytophthora selective medium. The pathogen was obtained from potato variety Everest which is an early variety for the traditional markets in the Mediterranean area and the Middle East and moderately susceptible to late blight. This species was identified as P. erythroseptica by using morphological and physiological characteristics and also analysing ITS, Cox and β-tubulin gene sequences, and differs from another species, P. cryptogea which was also found causing pink rot on potato.