Bihon, WubetuSlippers, BernardBurgess, Treena I.Wingfield, Michael J.Wingfield, Brenda D.2012-02-132012-02-132012-01Bihon, W, Slippers, B, Burgess T, Wingfield, MJ & Wingfield, BD 2012, 'Diverse sources of infection and cryptic recombination revealed in South African Diplodia pinea populations', Fungal Biology, vol. 116, no. 1, pp. 112-120.1878-6148 (print)1878-6162 (online)10.1016/j.funbio.2011.10.006http://hdl.handle.net/2263/18098This study considers the population diversity and structure of D. pinea in South Africa at different spatial scales from single trees to plantations, as well as comparing infections on healthy and diseased trees. A total of 236 isolates were characterized using thirteen microsatellite markers. Analysis of these markers confirmed previous results that D. pinea has a high level of gene and genotypic diversity in South Africa, with the latter values ranging from 6 % to 68 % for the different plantations. The data also reflect a fungus with randomly associated alleles in populations at local plantation scales and for the population as a whole. These results suggest that recombination is occurring in D. pinea and that it most likely has cryptic sexual state. The study also reveals the sources of endophytic infection and stress related disease out-breaks as diverse infections that have occurred over a long time period. In contrast, wound-associated die-back appears to be caused by clones of the pathogen occurring in narrow time frames.en© 2011 The British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Fungal Biology .Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Fungal Biology, vol. 116, issue 1, 2011, doi :10.1016/j.funbio.2011.10.006.Forest pathologyCryptic sexual reproductionSSR markersPopulation genetics -- South AfricaForest plants -- Diseases and pests -- South AfricaFungal diseases of plants -- South AfricaPathogenic fungi -- South AfricaIntroduced fungi -- South AfricaDiplodia -- Diseases and pests -- South AfricaPostprint Article