Thania

Journal of Food Safety ISSN 0149-6085

DEVELOPMENT OF DI- AND TETRANUCLEOTIDE REPEAT PRIMER FOR DISCRIMINATION OF FUSARIUM SPECIES jfs_262 35..40

K.A. ABD-ELSALAM1,2,4, A.H. BAHKALI1, M.A. MOSLEM1 and J.-A. VERREET3
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Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, PO Box 2455, Riyadh 1145, Saudi Arabia, Abdul Rahman Al-Jeraisy DNA Research Chair, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 3 Institute of Phytopathology, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

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Corresponding author. TEL: [phone]; FAX: [phone]; EMAIL: [e-mail] Accepted for Publication March 28, 2010 doi:10.1111/j.1745-4565.2010.00262.x

ABSTRACT
The genetic diversity profiles of 19 isolates of the fungal pathogen Fusarium species, 14 from Egypt and 5 from Germany, were analyzed based on morphological characteristics and microsatellite markers. Five microsatellites were selected and primers were designed. Microsatellite-primed polymerase chain reaction using the dinucleotide and tetranucleotide primers showed clear polymorphisms among the different Fusarium spp. isolates. Both primers gave similar results in phenetic analysis of genetic similarity between populations. Between Fusarium spp. isolates, similarities ranged from 38 to 62% for interspecific and 62 to 94% for intraspecific comparisons. Two major groups were observed in the dendrogram, which was divided into three subgroups. One of them consisted the five F.oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum isolates at the genetic similarity of 92%. Isolates Fov1, Fov3 and Fov5 showed high genetic relatedness (100%). With the second main cluster, at 62% similarity, one subcluster could be discerned; the subcluster contained F. oxysporum, F. solani, F. sambucinum, F. poae and Fusarium spp. isolates. These experiments reveal that microsatellite primers are reliable, sensitive and technically simple tools for assaying genetic variability in Fusaria.

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