The genetic diversity of Iranian isolates causing fusarium wilt of Lentil

Abstract

Fusarium wilt of lentil is one of the most important diseases which cause severe damages annually. In order to study the genetic diversity of Iranian isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lentis (Fol), forty five isolates of the pathogen were isolated from wilted lentil plants from different lentil growing areas of Iran and two isolates were collected from International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Damascus, Syria. The analysis of banding patterns resulting from RAPD PCR amplifications showed that Fol isolates could be differentiated into 10 groups at 64% similarity level well in accordance with their geographic origins. Studying with ISSR technique, all six primers used indicated the diversity of the isolates and differentiated them into six groups at 74% similarity level. It could partially separate isolates based on their geographical origins. Using the MXCOPH algorithm, high cophenetic correlation values for RAPD and ISSR data (0.883 and 0.918, respectively) were obtained. Both analyses were found suitable for the evaluation of genetic polymorphisms in fungal populations. Also the correlation value (r= 0.911) between cophenetic matrix values obtained from these analyses suggested a very significant correlation between RAPD and ISSR dendrograms.