Executive Forests Agency

The spread of Ophiostoma novo-ulmi across Europe, North America and central Asia, resulted in the current, highly destructive Dutch elm disease (DED) pandemic, replacing O. ulmi, responsible for the first DED pandemic in the early 1900s. This process has resulted in a series of remarkable evolutionary and adaptive developments. Studies of O. novo- ulmi populations in the 1980s, especially in Spain and Portugal, showed the following: 1) that O. novo-ulmi initially spread across Europe as a series of genetic clones; 2) that deleterious RNA viruses were transmitted within the O. novo-ulmi clones; 3) that natural hybrids between O. novo-ulmi subspecies americana and subsp. novo-ulmi, emerged widely across Europe; 4) that there has also been a widespread emergence, across Europe, of natural hybrids between O. novo-ulmi subspecies americana and also subsp. novo-ulmi. The factors driving these changes have been examined by molecular analysis. Results show: 1) that the rapid change from clonality to genetic variability involved the acquisition of ‘useful’ mating type, vegetative compatibility type and other genes by O. novo-ulmi from O. ulmi via lateral (or interspecies) gene transfer; whereas ‘unuseful’ O. ulmi genes were discarded; 2) that the RNA viruses occurring in the O. novo-ulmi populations probably originated from O. ulmi; and 3) and that where O. novo-ulmi subsp. americana and subsp. novo-ulmi co-exist, natural hybrids are occurring very freely; in some areas most O. novo-ulmi isolates are already complex subspp. americana x novo-ulmi hybrids. These phenomena features are unique, and have considerable implications for the invasion history, successful spread and future behaviour of O. novo-ulmi.