plants Article Differences in Leaf Morphological Parameters of Pear (Pyrus communis L.) Based on Their Susceptibility to European Pear Rust Caused by Gymnosporangium sabinae (Dicks.) Oerst. Katrına¯ Karklin¯ , a , Gunars¯ Lacis¯ and Baiba Lace¯ * Institute of Horticulture, Graudu 1, LV-3701 Dobele, Latvia;
[email protected] (K.K.);
[email protected] (G.L.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: European pear rust is an important disease; however, the relationship between its causal pathogen Gymnosporangium sabinae (Dicks.) Oerst. and host Pyrus communis L. is poorly understood. In this study, disease severity was measured, and leaf samples were collected over three years, and their leaf water content; leaf area; leaf mass per area; and epidermis, mesophyll, and vascular tissue width and stomatal density were measured and compared between susceptible and resistant genotypes for each year. Most genotypes either showed consistent disease symptoms or showed no symptoms during the study in terms of their susceptibility. A correlation between disease severity and mesophyll tissue thickness, and stomatal density and differences between several morphological parameters were found depending on the genotype’s susceptibility. The study showed that the following pear morphological traits were stable between the years: water content, leaf mass per area, spongy mesophyll thickness, phloem thickness, and stomatal density. When selecting for breeding, Citation: Karklin¯ , a, K.; Lacis,¯ G.; Lace,¯ B. Differences in Leaf we found that candidates for traits that discern susceptible genotypes from resistant were mesophyll Morphological Parameters of Pear layer width, stomatal density, epidermis width, and xylem tissue width. (Pyrus communis L.) Based on Their Susceptibility to European Pear Rust Keywords: European pear rust; Gymnosporangium sabinae; leaf anatomy Caused by Gymnosporangium sabinae (Dicks.) Oerst.