Intra- and inter-provenance variability in phloem phenols of Picea abies and relationship to a bark beetle-associated fungus.

One hundred Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) clones (three ramets per clone) were analyzed for phloem phenol composition and concentration before and 10 days after wound inoculation with sterile malt agar. Fifty clones (Experiment 1) belonged to the same provenance, whereas the remaining clones (Experiment 2) belonged to five provenances from three geographic areas. In Experiment 2, two additional ramets from the same clones were mass inoculated with Ceratocystis polonica (Siem.) C. Moreau to quantify the resistance of each clone. Tree response to wound inoculations was characterized by increased catechin concentration in both experiments, accompanied by increases in astringin and decreases in piceid in Experiment 1. In both experiments, we observed a diverse group of phenolic compounds whose concentrations increased (catechin, astringin) or did not vary (taxifolin glucoside) in response to wound inoculations, whereas concentrations of a homogeneous group of stilbene compounds decreased (piceid) or did not vary (isorhapontin, unidentified stilbene). In Experiment 2, provenances from the alpine and Hercynian-Carpatic areas differed from provenances from the Baltic area with respect to the relative importance of these two groups of compounds, further indicating that the two groupings of phenolic compounds structure the Norway spruce populations. Eighty days after mass inoculation, the percentage of healthy sapwood, which was taken as a measure of tree resistance, indicated that clones from the Baltic area were less resistant to mass inoculations than clones from the alpine and Hercynian-Carpatic areas. We conclude that the degree of resistance of Norway spruce trees to mass inoculations with a bark beetle-associated fungus can be predicted based on the diversity of constitutive phloem phenols and the ability to induce phenol synthesis in response to wounding.