Botrytis cinerea in raspberry in Serbia II: Growth rate and virulence of isolates

Growth rate and virulence of 130 isolates of Botrytis cinerea, derived from raspberry fruit\udoriginating from six commercial fields in a raspberry growing region of Serbia and classified\udin two morphological and four genetic groups were studied. The results showed significant\uddifferences in mycelial growth rate among the isolates. The highest and lowest recorded\udgrowth rates were 24.5 mm/day and 8.4 mm/day, respectively, while the growth rate of most\udisolates ranged from 15.8 to 21.8 mm/day. The growth rate of isolates that belong to different\udmorphological and genetic subgroups varied similarly. Furthermore, growth rate intervals\udof all subgroups overlapped, suggesting that the groups cannot be distinguished based\udon growth rates of the isolates contained. The studied B. cinerea isolates exibited different\udlevels of virulence towards vine, sunflower and raspberry leaves, while an analysis of variance\udrevealed that both the isolates and the inoculated host species were significant sources of\udvariation (P<0.01). Sunflower and raspberry leaves were significantly more sensitive than vine\udleaves. However, correlation between isolate virulence and different hosts was not found