Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA Restriction Enzyme Analysis of the Closely Related Phytophthora Species P. infestans, P. mirabilis, and P. phaseoli

To determine relatedness of the phytopathogenic fungi Phytophthora infestans , P. mirabilis , and P. phaseoli restriction fragment patterns of mitochondrial DNAs of several isolates and hybridization patterns of nuclear DNAs after Southern hybridization with a specific homologous probe were analyzed. All but two isolates of P. infestans and P. mirabilis show very similar restriction fragment patterns differing only in the length of one fragment due to small insertion/deletion(s). Two isolates of P. mirabilis have one additional site for Scr FI. On the contrary at least six sites differ in P. phaseoli when compared to the other two species. The mitochondrial genome of P. phaseoli is considerably smaller (approx. 6 kbp) than those of P. infestans and P. mirabilis . A cloned 430 bp multicopy DNA sequence, derived from P. infestans , hybridized specifically with P. infestans, P. mirabilis , and P. phaseoli out of 61 species of Peronosporales ( Phytophthora, Halophytophthora, Pythium, Albugo, Bremia, Peronospora, Plasmopara ) tested and therefore has potential as a diagnostic probe. Restriction patterns revealed by this probe are invariant intraspecifi‐cally but differ between the three species. We consider P. mirabilis a forma specialis of P. infestans because of the very high similarly in its mitochondrial DNA restriction patterns.