Genetic Variation Among Rhynchosporium secalis Populations of West Asia and North Africa as Revealed by RAPD and AFLP Analysis

In order to study genetic variation among populations of Rhynchosporium secalis, 65 isolates were sampled from the West Asian and North African regions and used for polymerase chain reaction (PCR)‐based DNA marker analyses namely random amplified polymorphism DNAs (RAPDs) and amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs)]. The study revealed that genetic diversity among and within populations accounted for 80 and 20%, respectively, of the total genetic diversity, indicating that the local field populations of R. secalis in West Asia and North Africa originated from genetically diverse source populations. Furthermore, high genetic similarity among isolates from the same location suggests that scald populations originated from a local founder population, possibly through rain‐splash‐dispersed conidia.