FcMgv1, FcStuA AND FcVeA BASED GENETIC CHARACTERIZATION IN Fusarium culmorum (W.G. Smith)

Abstract

Fusarium culmorum (W.G. Smith) leads to economic losses in wheat and barley fields in Turkey as well as in many countries worldwide as a result of head blight and crown rot diseases. In this study, in vitro growth capacity of 33 F. culmorum isolates originating from Turkey and the relationship between phenotypic and genetic characteristics obtained based on similarities of FcMgv1, FcStuA and FcVeA genes were investigated. Linear growth rate values were recorded at 4th and 7th days of incubation. The mean linear growth rate values ranged from 7.58±1.06 to 14.7±1.26mm/day. The isolates F2 and 18F with relatively high linear growth values and the isolates 12F and F19 with relatively low linear growth values, were selected to be used in multiloci based genotyping analysis. FcMgv1, FcStuA and FcVeA genes were amplified in lengths of 1733, 2001 and 1898bp, respectively. The genes were sequenced, aligned and then subjected to BLASTn and to maximum likelihood topology analysis. Nucleotide sequence of each gene showed maximum hit with associated genes deposited in NCBI with 0.0-0.0 E-values and 1188 to 3256 bit scores. Alignment analysis resulted in at least 89% bootstrap support. Moreover, isolates with similar linear growth rates were co-clustered in phylogenetic analysis. The findings obtained in this study showed that the three genes which are essential for fungal survival could be used in genetic characterization analysis and in revealing the associations between their genetic and phenotypic characteristics.