Association of Phytophthora citricola with Leather Rot Disease of Strawberry

Phytophthora cactorum is known to cause leather rot and crown rot of strawberry. Phytophthora citricola can also cause crown rot but has not previously been reported to be associated with strawberry leather rot in Europe. We have shown that P. citricola causes strawberry leather rot and is reported as a strawberry pathogen in Poland for the first time. Morphological identification of Phytophthora isolates was confirmed using molecular methods. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA was suitable for differentiation at the interspecific level. The internal transcribed spacer regions 1 and 2 of ribosomal DNA have been shown to be sufficiently variable to distinguish two morphologically similar Phytophthora species.