Japanese oak disease, one of the decline of Quercus, has spread throughout in Japan since the late 1980s. The causal agent is the plant pathogenic fungi Raffaelea quercivora and the vector insect is the ambrosia beetle Platypus quercivorus. As the beetle is assumed to be originally distributed in Japan without serious damages on Quercus, the expansion of any specific strain of the beetle or the fungi is proposed as the hypothesis for the break out of Japanese oak disease. In this study, we focused the beetle and to clarify whether beetles in damaged area is the specific strain or not, we analyzed geographic DNA polymorphisms of beetles within and between damaged area and non-damaged area. Two phylogenetic groups were found in the beetle in Japan, but both groups were associated with damaged area. Thus, Japanese oak disease seemed not to be caused by any specific strain of the beetle such as invasive one.
Species 1: Coleoptera Platypodidae Platypus quercivorus (Oak borer, Oak platypodid)
Keywords: mtDNA, Quercus
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