Abstract
Ceratocystis albofundus is an important wilt pathogen on exoticAcacia mearnsii trees in South Africa. It is known only from this country and has also been reported from nativeProtea spp., but it is not clear if the pathogen is native or introduced to South Africa. This study was conduced to determine the nuclear and mitochondrial gene diversity in a population ofC. albofundus and to compare this diversity with that of otherCeratocystis species. Isolates were collected from a number of geographic regions in South Africa. Total genomic, DNA was extracted from each isolate, digested withPstl and probed with the radioactively labelled oligonucleotide marker (CAT)5 to determine nulear DNA diversity. For the determination of mitochondrial DNA diversity, the RFLPs ofHaeIII digests were scored directly without probing. Nei’s gene diversity (H) was determined and a distance matrix was developed for each set of markers and analyzed using UPGMA. TheC. albofundus population was found to have a high level of both nuclear and mitochondrial gene diversity when compared with published data of populations of otherCeratocystis spp. This further supports the hypothesis thatC. albofundus is native to South Africa.
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Roux, J., Harrington, T.C., Steimel, J.P. et al. Genetic variation in the wattle wilt pathogenCeratocystis albofundus . Mycoscience 42, 327–332 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02461214
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02461214