Interspecificity of Scab Fungus Isolated from Wild Syrian Pear ().

Scab on pear is caused by two pathogens, on European pear and on Asian pear. Five races of and seven races of have been reported thus far and pathological specialization occurs in both species. Among them, the five race isolates of were previously found from wild Syrian pear. In this study, mating and morphological characteristics of isolates from Syrian pear were compared with those of isolates from European and Japanese pear cultivated in Japan. The results from mating experiments showed that Syrian pear isolates were compatible with European pear isolates of to produce ascospores but were sterile with isolates in culture. Interestingly, however, the size and shape of conidia collected from naturally infected leaves of Syrian pear resembled those of . This finding may open the way to study coevolution between pear hosts and spp. in the future.