Poster: Biology & Disease Mgmt: Mycology
28-P
Introduction and seed transmission of Fusarium proliferatum in the field
A. REYES GAIGE (1), W. Yue (2), C. Toomajian (2), J. Stack (2) (1) Kansas State University, U.S.A.; (2) Kansas State University, U.S.A.
Fusarium proliferatum (Fp) is a seed-borne fungus in maize seed. It has a broad host range with worldwide distribution, and it is a prolific producer of mycotoxins. The introduction of this seed-borne organism into new environments can result in geographic range expansion of undesirable populations. The potential introduction of Fp via infected seed planted into a new environment and subsequent dispersal from that site via seed transmission was studied. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was used to identify unique polymorphisms in Fusarium species isolated from two maize genotypes. The polymorphisms were used to design primer sets to accurately detect specific isolates of Fp by end-point PCR. Extensive exclusion panels were performed to validate the accuracy of the primer sets and two Fp isolates with unique GBS loci from two maize hybrids were identified. In field experiments, 2 plots each containing 6 subplots (3 of each hybrid) were established (completely randomized design). At harvest, 20 random maize ears were collected from each subplot, and 6 ears/subplot were used. 50 kernels/ear were sampled, 1855 isolates collected, and DNA extracted; 817 isolates were identified as Fp and 751 as F. verticillioides. 23 isolates were idenfitied as the unique GBS locus isolates thus indicating that transmission from the planted seed to the next generation of seed occurred. AFLP fingerprinting wil confirm their identify as the original isolates that were characterized with GBS.