Ninety-nine single ascospore isolates of Mycosphaerella pinodes (Berk. & Blox.) Vestergr. from widely separated locations in southern Australia varied greatly in their ability to cause disease in leaves and stems of 10 host genotypes when assayed at two inoculum pressures. There were highly significant differences between the infection pressures, isolates, and host genotypes that accounted for most of the variance. A small proportion of the variance included a highly significant host genotype beta isolate interactions in leaves and stems and a highly significant host genotype beta isolate beta environment interaction in leaves. The continuous variation in disease responses among isolates precluded classification into distinct pathotypes. A cluster analysis of the data revealed that many isolates were closely related irrespective of the host cultivar or location from which they were collected. The relationship between mean host resistance and the variation among isolates was assessed, and it was concluded that increasing host resistance was unlikely to increase variation in the pathogen population; therefore, resistance should be relatively stable.
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J. M. Wroth (1998) studied this question.