Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ricini (F. o. ricini) is a ubiquitous soil borne pathogen which causes wilt disease on castor (Ricinus communis L). Rapid and reliable detection of the pathogen is essential for undertaking appropriate and timely disease management measures. Identification based on cultural, morphological characteristics and pathogenicity tests are time-consuming and laborious. Traditional methods are now being increasingly replaced by molecular detection techniques, which are much faster and more specific. In this study we have identified two RAPD markers of 1100 bp and 1350 bp in size which can be amplified by OPJ-14 and OPK-12 primers respectively for detection of F. o. ricini. These two fragments were fully sequenced and two pairs of SCAR primers (For-J14 Fwd/Rev and For-K12 Fwd/Rev) were designed. The specific primer pairs amplified a single band from all F. o. ricini isolates and there was no amplification from another thirteen Fusarium species / subspecies tested. These results clearly demonstrate that the designed SCAR primer pairs can be used consistently to detect F. o. ricini isolates, isolated from the diseased samples or soil samples. To our knowledge this is the first report on generation of SCAR markers for identification of Indian F. o. ricini isolates.
J. Madhusudhana Reddy, M. A. Raoof, K. Ulaganathan
European Journal of Plant Pathology
December 2012, Volume 134, Issue 4, pp 713-719
DOI:10.1007/s10658-012-0047-9
