Identification of Phytophthora tolerance in the Anemone sylvestris tetraploid

Abstract The introduction and naturalization of alien pathogens and pests pose one of the biggest challenges in contemporary plant pathology. Chromosome doubling can be an effective method to obtain plants that are tolerant to these hazards and to reduce the impact of these hazards in both artificial and natural environments. The susceptibility of the induced tetraploid of Anemone sylvestris to artificial Phytophthora plurivora root infection was compared with the susceptibility of the diploid. The proportion of surviving plants and plants with disease symptoms was evaluated in a greenhouse experiment. Phytophthora infection decreased survival in the diploids, whereas no mortality was found in the tetraploids. Moreover, the surviving diploids were in poor health and showed unbalanced development, while the tetraploids were usually vital, and uniform, with compact growth regardless of phytophthora infection. Induced tolerance to P . plurivora was unknown to date in A. sylvestris .