LAUSR

The aim was to characterize M. paranaensis populations collected from infested coffee crops. Methodologies used to characterize the 11 studied populations, from municipalities in Paraná and Minas Gerais States, involved the morphological analysis of perineal patterns, biochemical analysis by isozyme electrophoresis, sequencing of ITS-1 and D2/D3 rDNA regions, reproductive fitness, and virulence characterization in coffee genotypes. Morphological evaluations showed the existence of variation between populations, although the majority of them showed typical perineal patterns. The biochemical identification was based on α-esterase isozyme analyses and resulted in the appearance of three distinct profiles: P1 (typical), P2 (atypical) and a non-described profile, P2b. BLAST of the ITS-1 and D2/D3 rDNA regions indicated homology (>95%) with other sequences deposited in GenBank. For reproductive fitness and virulence characterization, 13 coffee genotypes (five C. arabica and eight C. canephora) were inoculated with 11 M. paranaensis populations. Variation in the reproductive fitness of populations was observed for cv. Mundo Novo, a genotype without resistance genes, and variation in the virulence of populations was observed in genotypes carrying resistance genes. Three populations exhibited virulence combined with high reproductive fitness, while one showed virulence with low reproductive fitness. Some hosts were resistant to 11 populations, while one of the hosts was resistant to only one population, indicating the presence of different resistance R genes. Nevertheless, no relationship was observed between the origin of population and their variations in perineal patterns, esterase profiles, phylogeny, or reproductive fitness in coffee genotypes, as well as between the different characterizations each other, although differences were observed into each characteristic.