title: Spiny-cheek crayfish Orconectes limosus carry a novel genotype of the crayfish plague pathogen Aphanomyces astaci.
abstract: The oomycete Aphanomyces astaci causes mass mortalities of European crayfish. Different species of North American crayfish, original hosts of this parasite, seem to carry different strains of A. astaci. So far, four distinct genotype groups have been recognised using Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR). We succeeded in isolating A. astaci from the spiny-cheek crayfish Orconectes limosus, a widespread invader in Europe, and confirmed that this species carries a novel A. astaci genotype. Improving knowledge on the diversity of this parasite may facilitate identification of genotypes in mass mortalities of European crayfish, thus tracing the sources of infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, CZ-12844 Prague 2, Czech Republic. evikkk@post.cz
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kozubíková
authors.forename: Satu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Viljamaa-Dirks
authors.forename: Sirpa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heinikainen
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petrusek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044744:Aphanomyces / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D003400:Astacoidea / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000032:analysis; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D007239:Infections / Q000662:veterinary*; D010802:Phylogeny; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal