NEW DATA OF CRYPHONECTRIA PARASITICA (MURR.) BARR POPULATION IN CARPATHIAN-BASIN

Abstract

The ascomycete fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr, is an important fungal pathogen of chestnut in Europe and North America. The fungus grows into the bark up to the cambium, causing typical diffuse cancers and the death of distal parts of the trunks or branches. The pathogen kills the infected tree branches and the rapid death of the entire tree take place which is causing high environmental and economic concerns. In this study we employed a part of the translation elongation factor 1 subunit alpha (EF-1α=tef1) and ITS region, as a potential genetic markers to infer phylogenetic relationships among Cryphonectria parasitica isolates. The translation elongation factor 1 subunit alpha (EF-1α=tef1) containing both introns and exons and ITS region containing the internal transcribed spacer regions 1 and 2 and the 5.8S rDNA, as a potential genetic markers to infer phylogenetic relationships among Cryphonectria parasitica isolates. Translation elongation factor 1 subunit alpha (EF1α=tef1) is part of the cytosolic EF1 complex, whose primary function is to promote the binding of aminoacyl-tRNA to the ribosome in a GTP-dependent process. Simultaneously, elongation factor 1α (EF-1α) is a highly conserved ubiquitous protein that has been suggested to have desirable properties for phylogenetic inference and population genetic studies. Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) has long been used as a potential marker for phylogenetic studies. rRNA genes are organized in clusters of tandemly repeated units, each of which consists of coding regions (18S, 5.8S, and 28S) and 2 internal transcribed spacers (ITS) and intergenic spacer (formerly called the Non-Transcibed Spacer, NTS) region. While the coding regions are evolutionarily conserved and have been utilized for phylogenetic inferences for major phyla, the 2 ITS regions are appropriate for detecting differences between co-specific individuals and are hence potentially useful markers to study the relationships of populations and closely related species in fungal, plant, and animal taxa due to their relatively rapid evolutionary rates.