Impact of Continuous Cropping of Lettuce on the Disease Dynamics of Bottom Rot and Genotypic Diversity of Rhizoctonia solani AG 1-IB

The impact of continuous cropping of lettuce on the disease dynamics of bottom rot and genotypic diversity of the causal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG 1-IB was studied over 3 years with two crops per year within a field naturally infested with R. solani the pathogen. This field had not had lettuce cultivated in it for 7 years. The disease incidence (DI) and disease severity (DS) were assessed at each harvest and mapped. Surprisingly, a high DI was already observed in the first crop of year one of this field study. In addition, the pathogen was also found to be evenly distributed. Severely infected plants occurred mainly in patches, and the position varied between crops. A significant increase in DS was already observed in the second year, and both temperature conditions and continuous cropping influenced the DS on average over time. Rhizoctonia isolates were randomly collected from the first crop in 1999 and the sixth crop in 2001. The genotypic diversity within the subgroup of R. solani AG 1-IB was analysed by BOX-PCR genomic fingerprinting and the aggressiveness of isolates by bioassay. The fingerprints revealed a high level of genotypic diversity within the AG 1-IB field population. However, continuous cropping was found not to have an impact on genotypic diversity and aggressiveness.