A field study on the influence of Verticillium dahliae and Pratylenchus penetrans on gas exchange of potato

Field experiments were conducted for three consecutive years to study the effects of low populations of Verticillium dahliae and Pralylenchus penetrans on leaf gas exchange of Russet Burbank potato. Treatments were P. penetrans, V. dahliae, the combination of the nematode with the fungus, and a no-pathogen control. Gas exchange was measured nondestructively on young, fully expanded, asymptomatic leaves one to three times per week starting the ninth week after planting. Infection with either pathogen alone had little or no effect on leaf gas exchange parameters. However, co-infection by both pathogens resulted in reduced leaf light use efficiency (mole of CO2 fixed per mole of photon), lower leaf stomatal conductance, lower leaf water use efficiency (mole of CO2 fixed per mole of water used), and increased intercellular CO2 compared with the no-pathogen control. These effects, additive relative to the impact of each pathogen alone, were first observed 9 weeks after inoculation in the first 2 years of the study and 15 weeks after inoculation in the third year.