Genetic diversity of Botritis cinerea revealed by sequencing and identification of B. otrytis cinerea isolates in strawberries of Almaty region

This article discusses the isolation and identification of 8 isolates of strawberry gray mold pathogens from four varieties inthe Almaty region: Vivara, Murano, Serofline and Albion. The morpho-cultural characteristics of the isolated Botrytis cinerea(B. cinerea) strains were studied, and the rates of radial colony growth in various nutrient media were determined. Percentidentity of eight Botrytis cinerea isolates ranged from 95.4% to 100%. For most isolates, percent identity exceeded 99%,indicating a high degree of genetic conservatism in the ITS regions. An exception was isolate K12 (PI = 95.4%), which exhibitedminor nucleotide variations that, however, did not affect the taxonomic classification. The isolated strains were deposited inthe GenBank database maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI): B. cinerea K1-PV226173.1,B. cinerea K2-PV226178.1, B. cinerea K9-PV203239.1, B. cinerea K12- PV203241.1, B. cinerea K13-PV203240.1, B. cinereaK24-PV203243.1, B. cinerea K27-PV203242.1, B. cinerea K28-PV203244.1. The constructed phylogenetic tree shows thatB. cinerea forms a large monophyletic cluster with high intraspecific variability, which confirms its wide distribution. OtherBotrytis species form polyphyletic and stable groups, reflecting their taxonomic isolation.