Sadikovic, D.Piskur, B.Barnes, IreneHauptman, T.Diminic, D.Wingfield, Michael J.Jurc, D.2019-09-042019-09-042019-08Sadikovic, D., Piskur, B., Barnes, I. et al. 2019, 'Genetic diversity of the pine pathogen Lecanosticta acicola in Slovenia and Croatia', Plant Pathology, vol. 68, no. 6, pp. 1120-1131.0032-0862 (print)1365-3059 (online)10.1111/ppa.13017http://hdl.handle.net/2263/71280Figure S1. Delineated results of Evanno (Evanno et al., 2005) (left) and Puechmaille (Puechmaille, 2016) (right) methods for determining optimal number of K.Figure S2. structure bar plots representing K = 2 to K = 5, obtained from the Bayesian analysis of Lecanosticta acicola samples collected from Slovenia and Croatia. The percentage on the right represents the proportion of independent structure runs (30 in total) that correspond to the significantly similar clustering pattern (SSC > 0.9). The population codes correspond to the order of populations listed in Table 1.Figure S3. Value of Bayesian informative characters (BIC) versus the number of clusters.Table S1. Lecanosticta acicola isolates (ID) from Slovenia and Croatia genotyped using 10 microsatellite markers (non‐clone‐corrected data).Brown spot needle blight (BSNB), a disease of pine trees caused by the fungus Lecanosticta acicola, has been known in Slovenia since 2008 and in Croatia since 1975. Recent outbreaks in Slovenia prompted this study to compare L. acicola populations in these two neighbouring European countries. Sixty‐nine isolates collected from three pine species (Pinus mugo, P. halepensis and P. nigra) were used to determine the phylogenetic relationships, genetic structure, and reproductive strategy of the pathogen. EF1‐α sequences showed that Slovenian and Croatian isolates share a common ancestry with individuals from central and northern Europe. Population structure analysis revealed four distinct population clusters of L. acicola in these two countries, generally corresponding to their respective geographic location and host. An unequal ratio of mating types and a low overall genetic diversity in the population indicated a strong influence of asexual reproduction. Although some of the oldest recorded European occurrences of BSNB are from Croatia, this study provided no evidence that the population studied in Croatia was the source of the sampled outbreaks in Slovenia. Recent outbreaks of L. acicola in Slovenia are most likely due to introductions from other, yet to be identified, sources.en© 2019 The Authors. Plant Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Society for Plant Pathology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.Brown spot needle blight (BSNB)Elongation factorHost preferenceMating typePopulation geneticsPinusClustersMycosphaerella dearnessiiPopulation structureMaximum likelihoodSoftwareInferenceArticle