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Chromosome constitution of hybrid strains constructed by protoplast fusion between the tomato and strawberry pathotypes of Alternaria alternata

  • Fungal Diseases
  • Published:
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Abstract

To analyze the genetics of host-specific toxin production and its relation to the specific pathogenicity of a mitosporic fungus Alternaria alternata, we developed a protoplast fusion system. Protoplasts of drug-resistant transformants of the A. alternata tomato pathotype (AAL-toxin producer) and A. alternata strawberry pathotype (AF-toxin producer) were fused by electrofusion. Of five fusion strains examined, two strains were pathogenic on both tomato and strawberry host plants, whereas the rest of the fusion strains were pathogenic only on tomato. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis demonstrated that the hybrid strains pathogenic on both tomato and strawberry carry 1.0- and 1.05-Mb conditionally dispensable (CD) chromosomes derived, respectively, from the parental strains of the tomato and strawberry pathotypes. On the other hand, the fusion strains appeared to maintain only a single homologous chromosome derived from one of the parental strain in the case of essential chromosomes (A chromosomes). The results suggest that fusion strains between two different pathotypes of A. alternata might be haploid resulting from the deletion of extra sets of essential chromosomes in the fused nuclei, whereas the CD chromosomes derived from each parental strain could be maintained stably in a new genetic background with an expanded range of pathogenicity.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Richard P. Oliver for providing pAN7-1, and to Junko Kawakami and Yoshinori Miyagawa for technical assistance. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Society for Promotion of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-Minami, Tottori, 680-8553, Japan

    Yasunori Akagi

  2. Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-Minami, Tottori, 680-8553, Japan

    Hiroshi Otani & Motoichiro Kodama

  3. Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan

    Masatoki Taga

  4. College of Agriculture, Okayama University, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan

    Mikihiro Yamamoto

  5. Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Takashi Tsuge

  6. The Tottori Mycological Institute, Tottori, 689-1125, Japan

    Yukitaka Fukumasa-Nakai

Authors
  1. Yasunori Akagi
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  2. Masatoki Taga
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  3. Mikihiro Yamamoto
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  4. Takashi Tsuge
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  5. Yukitaka Fukumasa-Nakai
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  6. Hiroshi Otani
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  7. Motoichiro Kodama
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Motoichiro Kodama.

Additional information

The nucleotide sequence data reported are available in the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank database under the accession numbers AB469331to AB469354.

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Akagi, Y., Taga, M., Yamamoto, M. et al. Chromosome constitution of hybrid strains constructed by protoplast fusion between the tomato and strawberry pathotypes of Alternaria alternata . J Gen Plant Pathol 75, 101–109 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-009-0149-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-009-0149-1

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