Phylogenetic analysis of a population of Fusarium graminearum from Argentina

ALVAREZ, CORA LILIA; SOMMA, STEFANIA; STEA, GAETANO; CABRAL, DANIEL; MULÈ, GIUSEPPINA; FERNÁNDEZ PINTO, VIRGINIA Y MORETTI, ANTONIO

Wageningen, The Netherlands

Simposio; European Fusarium Seminar; 2006

Wageningen Fusarium Seminar

Wheat is one of the most important crop in Argentina , with yields over 12.000.000 tons and anarea of cultivation of 6.000.000 ha. In this country, Fusarium graminearum is the most commoncasual agent of Fusarium Head Blight, a disease that causes economic damages for both loss ofproduct due to reduced yield and reduction in seed quality due to infected grains containingsignificant levels of trichothecene and estrogenic mycotoxins that pose serious threat to animalhealth and food safety. The genetic diversity of F graminearum has been extensively studiedworldwide and 9 lineages have been phylogenetically characterized. During two seasons, weisolated from wheat kernels, sampled at pre-harvest in the main wheat growing area in BuenosAires province, around 300 strains of F. graminearum. This population has been then geneticallyanalyzed by sequencing elongation factor, ß-tubulin, and trichothecene 3-O-acetyltransfarase (TRI 101) loci in order to assessing the lineages occurring in the F. graminearum population fromArgentina . The analysis of the Automatic Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLPs) has been also performed to screening the genetic variability within this population. Data obtained have shown that the lineage 7 seems to be the most occurring in Argentina and that not always the AFLP data seem to be correlated with the lineages scored among the strains.