Maryam Karimi Dehkordi, Mohammad Javan-Nikkhah, BaharMoril, Vahid Rahjoo and Shahab Hajmansoor
Fusarium verticillioides (teleomorph: Gibberella moniliformis = G. fujikuroi mating population A) is a common fungal pathogen of maize and rice crops worldwide. Fungal phytopathogens are cause of many plants diseases and much loss of crop yields, especially in tropical and subtropical regions [2]. All Isolates from infected corn samples were determined by specific primers but none of the isolates collected from infected rice were determined by specific primers (which were designed for corn isolates) as F. verticillioides. They were identified according to mating type (applying standard isolates). Results determined that 6 out of 14 rice isolates were characterized as MAT1, while the others were MAT2. Additionally, all the isolates were reconfirmed using morphological analysis. Rep-PCR was used to determine genetic diversity of 55 isolates of F. verticillioides from infected ears and stems of Zea maize and Oryzae sativa from different corn and rice producing areas of Iran. Reproducing genomic fingerprints was done by amplifying each strain according to PCRs of entero bacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) and BOX sequences. Corresponding conserve repetitive element motifs in the genomes of diverse bacterial species were used to compare F. verticillioides isolates in rice and corn. In total, all 55 isolates were evaluated and comparisons were shown as a dendrogram produced by an UPGMA cluster analysis based on the Jaccard’s similarity coefficient. Fifty-five isolates were divided into 43 groups determined as 3 groups with 3 individuals, 6 groups with 2 individuals and 34 groups form a single member in 65% similarity. Results suggested that F. verticillioides isolates from rice and corn are genetically different. It is possible that they belong to two forma specials. Cluster analysis shows that Rep-PCR is a convenient and rapid method for analysis of genetic diversity and strain differentiation in F. verticillioides. Universal primers theoretically anneal to intergenic target sites that are randomly dispersed in genomes and provide amplification of different length fragments.
