Comparison Of Genetic Diversity And Virulence in Different Tilletia Foetida Isolates Causing Common Bunt Disease in Wheat

Abstract

Common bunt is a very dangerous seed-borne disease in most wheat varieties and is caused by Tilletia foetida (laevis) and Tilletia caries (tritici). These two fungi species can cause losses of production and quality of wheat. To date, some genetic studies have been performed on T. caries, T. contraversa, T. indica and T. walker in different world areas, although. But there is no genetic diversity analysis using ISSR markers on different Tilletia species have been reported. Additionally, a correlation between genetic diversity and virulence of Tilletia sp. has not been researched. This possible correlation may be investigated using T. foetida samples isolated from different wheat varieties and locations. In this study, genetic diversity of five each T. foetida isolates from each of thirteen different fields was determined using 25 ISSR markers. A T. caries isolate was used as out-group. The dendrogram showing genetic diversity of T. foetida was drawn using UP-GMA Analysis. Genetic diversity data was compared with virulence of T. foetida isolates against a sensitive wheat variety (Heinles VII). A significant correlation between virulence and genetic diversity of bunt isolates was determined. We observed that bunt isolates have high genetic variety and virulence degrees of genetically close isolates are similar.