Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2009
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Authors
Berit Nordskog David M. Gadoury May Bente Brurberg Tor Håkon Sivertsen R. Kennedy Arne HermansenAbstract
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Authors
Ari Hietala Nina Elisabeth Nagy Arne Steffenrem Harald Kvaalen Carl Gunnar Fossdal Halvor SolheimAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Leif Sundheim Maria-Luz Herrero Trond Rafoss Brita Toppe May Bente Brurberg Trond Hofsvang Christer Magnusson Anne Marte Tronsmo Bjørn ØklandAbstract
Phytophthora ramorum S. Werres, A.W.A.M. de Cook & W.A. Man in‘t Veld is a newly described Phytophthora-species which is considered to be relatively recently introduced to both USA and Europe from an unknown area, or areas, of origin. The pathogen has a wide host range and causes a complexity of disease symptoms generally grouped into three categories: canker, foliage lesion, and dieback. In Europe the pathogen has been reported in 21 countries, Norway included; predominantly on ornamental plants in nurseries, but also outside nurseries in gardens and semi-natural environment, most often on rhododendrons. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority needs a risk assessment of the pest as basis for an evaluation of a future phytosanitary risk management of P. ramorum, including whether the organism should be regulated as a quarantine pest in Norway. On this background the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, in a letter of 22nd August 2008, requested a pest risk assessment of P. ramorum from the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (Vitenskapskomiteen for mattrygghet, VKM). The pest risk assessment was adopted by VKM"s Panel on plant health (Panel 9) on a meeting 24th June 2009. VKM"s Panel 9 gives the following main conclusions of the risk assessment: 1) P. ramorum is present but not widely distributed in Norway, and the pest is under official control. The outdoors surveys of P. ramorum in Norway have not been conducted systematically over the whole country, and some uncertainty therefore still remains regarding the current distribution of P. ramorum in the PRA area. 2) The overall probability of entry of P. ramorum into Norway and the overall probability of establishment of P. ramorum in Norway are both rated as high with low levels of uncertainty; 3) In the absence of statutory control the probability for P. ramorum to be spread quickly in the PRA area by trade of host plants for planting is rated as high. The uncertainty of this assessment is low; 4) The part of the PRA area where presence of P. ramorum might result in economically important losses (the endangered area) is assessed to be most of the country of Norway, except where the climate is predicted to be unfavourable for the pest. However, this area must be regarded as a maximum estimate for the endangered area. On the other hand, a narrow and very conservative estimate for the endangered area can be defined based on the geographical distribution of highly susceptible host plants in Norway. This area is gardens and parks with Rhododendron spp., Viburnum spp. and F. sylvatica and areas in the wild into which Rhododendron spp. has spread and woods with F. sylvatica. Woods with F. sylvatica is limited to the county of Vestfold and some small areas in the counties of Aust-Agder and Hordaland; 5) P. ramorum is likely to have moderate economic impact on the nurseries in the PRA area with current phytosanitary measures. Without any such regulations P. ramorum is likely to have major economic impact on the nursery industry of the PRA area. The levels of uncertainties of these assessments are low; 6) With current phytosanitary measures P. ramorum is likely to have moderate economic impact on parks and private gardens in parts of the PRA area. Without any such regulations P. ramorum is likely to have major economic impact in the best climatic zones of the PRA area. The levels of uncertainties of these assessments are low; 7) The impact of P. ramorum in coniferous and mixed forests of the PRA area is likely to be minor. The level of uncertainty of this assessment is medium. The impact of P. ramorum in natural and planted deciduous broadleaf forests of the PRA area is likely to be minor due to the scattered and limited distribution of the most susceptible species. The level of uncertainty of this assessment is medium; 8) The non-commercial and environmental consequences to natural environments in the PRA area are likely to be moderate. The level of uncertainty ...
Authors
Ingerd Skow Hofgaard Katarzyna Marzec Guro Brodal Birgitte Henriksen May Bente Brurberg Anne-Marte TronsmoAbstract
Microdochium nivale (syn. Microdochium nivale var. nivale) and Microdochium majus (syn. Microdochium nivale var. majus) are important pathogens which cause snow mould on grasses and winter cereals. These fungi are also able to cause leaf blotch of oat and seedling blight, foot rot and ear blight in cereals. Although no distinct differences in the host range of M. nivale and M. majus are found, indications for differences in host preferences between these fungal species have previously been discussed. The culture collection at Bioforsk contains about 250 Microdochium sp. isolated from grasses and cereals over the last 20 years. Most of the isolates collected from leaves of cereals displaying snow mould symptoms in spring, were identified as M. nivale (71 %), whereas most of the isolates collected from cereal seeds (mostly wheat) belong to the species M. majus (92 %). All, except one out of the sixty nine Microdochium sp. isolated from grass leaves were identified as M. nivale (99 %). The relatively higher incidence of M. majus vs. M. nivale on cereal seeds (mostly wheat) harvested in Norway, is in agreement with studies in UK (Parry et al. 1995). Parry et al. suggested that higher natural occurrence of M. majus (vs. M. nivale) on seeds of cereals could be partly due to the higher proportion of M. majus isolates producing perithecia and thus, a relatively higher amount of M. majus spores spreading to the ear (Parry et al. 1995). The high frequency of M. nivale (99 %) vs. M. majus on grasses collected in Norway could indicate that M. nivale is more aggressive on certain grass species. Studies in our lab indeed point towards a higher aggressiveness of M. nivale vs. M. majus on perennial ryegrass at low temperature (2?C) (Hofgaard et al 2006). However, the high incidence of M. nivale on grass leaves could also be caused by differences in temperature preferences, saprophytic ability or ability to infect certain plant parts. Isolates of M. nivale display a higher in vitro growth rate compared to isolates of M. majus at 2?C (Hofgaard et al. 2006). In conclusion, the higher natural occurrence of M. nivale vs. M. majus on turf grasses and the relatively higher aggressiveness of M. nivale on perennial ryegrass could indicate that M. nivale somehow is better adapted to infect certain grass species.
Abstract
European ash (Fraxinus excelsior), also known as common ash, occurs naturally inland in lower areas of southeastern Norway and along the southern coast of the country. It is important both as a forest and ornamental tree. During the last decade, dieback has become a disastrous disease on F. excelsior in many European countries. The anamorphic fungus Chalara fraxinea T. Kowalski (1), described for the first time from dying ash trees in Poland, is now considered the cause of ash dieback (2). In May of 2008, C. fraxinea was isolated from 1.5 m high diseased F. excelsior in a nursery in Østfold County in southeastern Norway. Symptoms included wilting, necrotic lesions around leaf scars and side branches, and discoloration of the wood. From symptomatic branches, small pieces (approximately 1 cm3) were excised in the transition area between healthy and discolored wood. After surface sterilization (10 s in 70% ethanol + 90 s in NaOCl), the pieces were air dried for 1 min in a safety cabinet, cut into smaller pieces, and placed on media. The fungus was isolated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and water agar (WA). On PDA, the cultures were tomentose, light orange, and grew slowly (21 mm mean colony diameter after 2 weeks at room temperature). Typical morphological features of C. fraxinea developed in culture. Brownish phialides (14.8 to 30.0 [19.5] × 2.5 to 5.0 [4.1] μm, n = 50) first appeared in the center of the colonies on the agar plugs that had been transferred. The agar plugs were 21 days old when phialides were observed. Abundant sporulation occurred 3 days later. Conidia (phialospores) extruded apically from the phialides and formed droplets. Conidia measured 2.1 to 4.0 (3.0) × 1.4 to 1.9 (1.7) μm (n = 50). The first-formed conidia from each phialide were different in size and shape from the rest by being longer (6 μm, n = 10) and more narrow in the end that first appeared at the opening of the phialide. Internal transcribed spacer sequencing confirmed that the morphological identification was correct (Accession No. EU848544 in GenBank). A pathogenicity test was carried out in June of 2008 by carefully removing one leaf per plant on 10 to 25 cm high F. excelsior trees (18 trees) and placing agar plugs from a 31-day-old C. fraxinea culture (isolate number 10636) on the leaf scars and covering with Parafilm. After 46 days, isolations were carried out as described above from discolored wood that had developed underneath necrotic lesions in the bark and subsequently caused wilting of leaves. All the inoculated plants showed symptoms, and C. fraxinea was successfully reisolated. No symptoms were seen on uninoculated control plants (eight trees) that had received the same treatment except that sterile PDA agar plugs had been used.
2008
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Rhodiola rosea is widely distributed in Norway, but so far limited knowledge exists on the level of genetic diversity. To initiate a selective breeding program, Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was used to estimate genetic diversity within the Norwegian R. rosea germplasm collection. AFLP analysis of 97 R. rosea clones using five primer combinations gave a total of 109 polymorphic bands. We detected high percentage of polymorphic bands (PPB) with a mean of 82.3% among the clones of R. rosea. Each of the 97 R. rosea clones could be unambiguously identified based on these primer combinations. Estimates of genetic similarities were obtained by the Dice coefficient, and a final dendrogram was constructed with the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean (UPGMA). Genetic similarity based on the AFLP data ranged from 0.440 to 0.950 with a mean of 0.631. This genetic analysis showed that there was no close genetic similarity among clones related to their original growing county. No gender-specific markers were found in the R. rosea clones. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed a significantly greater variation within regions (92.03%) than among regions (7.97%). A low level of genetic differentiation (F-ST=0.043) was observed, indicating a high level of gene flow, which had a strong influence on the genetic structure at different counties. Our results indicate high gene flow among R rosea clones that might be a result of seed dispersal rather than cross-pollination. Further world-wide studies are required to compare the level of genetic diversity and more studies in R. rosea detailing the consequences of different patterns of gene flow (pollen spread and dispersal of seeds and clonal plants) will be useful for characterization of roseroot. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Abstract
The Fusarium genus includes devastating plant pathogenic fungi that cause diseases in cereals around the world. They produce several mycotoxins, including the estrogenic compound zearalenone. To better understand the molecular mechanisms determining zearalenone production, we performed differential display RT-PCR under conditions where Fusarium graminearum and F. culmorum produced high amounts of zearalenone. We found 133 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and 54 of these were considered to be up-regulated during high zearalenone production. Several of the ESTs were confirmed to be up-regulated by real-time qPCR, but none showed any significant down-regulation in the zearalenone negative mutant Delta PKS4-T9, or were similar to typical gene expression patterns of previously described zearalenone-related genes. Some of the up-regulated ESTs were similar to genes involved in secondary metabolite production, lipid metabolism, transcriptional activation, provision of precursors, signal transduction, transport or detoxification. Several of the ESTs were also located adjacent to one another in the genome and therefore might represent genes involved in the same biosynthetic pathway. Members of six such putative pathways could be found. All sequences were compared to the MIPS F. graminearum Genome Database to verify autocalled gene predictions experimentally and to introduce new exons and gene structures.