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Genetic diversity of Ustilago maydis strains

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Abstract

Thirty wild isolates belonging to five different locations in Mexico plus two laboratory strains of Ustilago maydis were characterized by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis using 23 different clones as probes derived from a PstI library and two restriction enzymes. All loci analysed presented a high level of polymorphism, including one locus with thirty one different alleles. Geographical grouping of the populations was based on Nei's genetic distance and there was no correlation between genetic and geographic distances among these isolates. Our results suggest that DNA fingerprinting is a useful method for detecting genetic variation in populations of U. maydis. This work demonstrated that considerable genetic variation may be present within field populations of U. maydis.

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Valverde, M.E., Vandemark, G.J., Martínez, O. et al. Genetic diversity of Ustilago maydis strains. World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 16, 49–55 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008987531313

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