Distribution of mating types and genetic diversity induced by sexual recombination in Setosphaeria turcica in northern China

Abstract

Mature ascocarps and ascospores in the heterothallic ascomycete fungus, Setosphaeria turcica, were successfully produced in Sach’s medium with barley culm as the mating stimulator after four weeks’ coincubation of two opposite mating type isolates at 25°C in darkness. A single isolate could not produce ascospores or ascocarps. The ascocarps were produced on the exposed surface and embedded parts of barley culm or in the upper layer of the medium. The asci linked themselves to ascocarp with their short handles and assembled at the bottom of the ascocarp. Many asci had four to six colorless mature ascospores with one to six septa. But asci with eight ascospores were also found. Using isolate 9914 and isolate 9961 as standard testers for mating types (MAT1 and MAT2), respectively, 94 isolates of S. turcica collected from northern China in 1999, 2003, and 2004 were grouped into three mating types: MAT1 (53 isolates), MAT2 (31 isolates) and MAT12 (10 isolates). The MAT12 isolates, which were first found in China, were compatible with not only MAT1 isolates but also MAT2 isolates. No MAT12 isolates were found in 1999, but 2 MAT12 isolates and 8 MAT12 isolates were found in 2001 and 2003, respectively. The geographic distribution of different mating types was unequal among locations. Generally the frequency of MAT1 was significantly higher than that of MAT2 and MAT12. The unequal distribution of mating types suggested a low frequency of genetic recombination. The pathogenicity of different mating type isolates was tested on the susceptible corn inbred B37 and the results revealed that the disease latency period, disease incidence, lesion area and conidia production were not significantly different among the three mating type groups. However, the pathogenicity of the progeny isolates of isolate 99-12 (MAT2, race 1) and isolate 99-15 (MAT1, race 0) was significantly different from the parent isolates, isolate 99-12 and isolate 99-15, suggesting that sexual recombination could cause significantly virulence variation in S. turcica. Random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis also revealed high genotype diversity among the progeny isolates, indicating that the sexual recombination could also produce significant genetic variation in the fungal pathogen.