VIEW ARTICLE

Genetics

Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms in the Wheat Glume Blotch Fungus, Phaeosphaeria nodorum. P. P. Ueng, USDA-ARS, Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705; G. C. Bergstrom(2), R. M. Slay(3), E. A. Geiger(4), G. Shaner(5), and A. L. Scharen(6). (2)Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; (3)(4)USDA-ARS, Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705; (5)Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN 47907; (6)USDA-ARS, Department of Plant Pathology, Montana State University, Bozeman 59717. Phytopathology 82:1302-1305. Accepted for publication 29 June 1992. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1992. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-82-1302.

To develop genetic markers in the fungus Phaeosphaeria nodorum, incitant of leaf and glume blotch of cereals and grasses, genomic DNA from 11 geographically diverse isolates from wheat was used to compare restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). An isolate from winter wheat in Cayuga County, New York, was used to construct genomic clones, of which 56 were randomly chosen as probes. Twenty-two of the probes produced unique hybridization patterns with the 11 isolates. RFLP loci exhibited one (13 probes), two (seven probes), three (one probe), or four (one probe) fragment length variants. The isolates could be differentiated by hybridization with a combination of as few as two probes. Our results suggest that DNA fingerprinting may be a useful method for assessing the amount and distribution over space and time of genetic variation in populations of P. nodorum as well as for following the fate of introduced ‘marked’ isolates in epidemiological studies. RFLPs may also have utility in developing genetic maps of P. nodorum for virulence and other traits.