Etude du polymorphisme intraclonal chez le Verticillium albo-atrum, forme à microsclérotes. I. La morphogénèse des thalles à partir des microconidies et ses variations
In vitro thallus regeneration from microconidia was studied to define the stages of morphogenesis of some Moroccan strains of Verticillium albo-atrum Reinke and Berthold, microsclerotial forms: germination of microconidia, initiation and growth of vegetative mycelium, formation of microconidia and microsclerotia. Wild-type phenotypic characteristics such as rate of radial growth, length of time for the appearance of microsclerotia, and morphological aspects of each strain were evaluated.The morphogenesis of clones obtained from isolated microconidia showed however wide variations in percentage of regeneration and in growth and phenotype of the thallus formed from the microconidia. These variations seem to depend in part on the age of the culture from which the microconidia are taken and generally involve modifications in the regeneration potentiality of microconidia and also the appearance of stable morphological variants of which the most frequent is the hyaline type forming no microsclerotia and covered with an abundant white cotton-like aerial mycelium. The consequences of these variations are considered from a phytopathological point of view and especially in relation to experimental inoculation techniques using microconidia.