Genome-Wide Informative Microsatellite Markers and Population Structure of Fusarium virguliforme from Argentina and the USA

Leandro Lopes da Silva; Huan Tian; Brandi Schemerhorn; Jin-Rong Xu; Guohong Cai

doi:10.3390/jof9111109

Genome-Wide Informative Microsatellite Markers and Population Structure of Fusarium virguliforme from Argentina and the USA

J Fungi (Basel). 2023 Nov 16;9(11):1109. doi: 10.3390/jof9111109.

Authors

Leandro Lopes da Silva¹, Huan Tian², Brandi Schemerhorn¹, Jin-Rong Xu², Guohong Cai^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Crop Production and Pest Control Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
² Botany and Plant Pathology Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.

Abstract

Soybean sudden death syndrome (SDS) is a destructive disease that causes substantial yield losses in South and North America. Whereas four Fusarium species were identified as the causal agents, F. virguliforme is the primary SDS-causing pathogen in North America and it also contributes substantially to SDS in Argentina. In this study, we comparatively analyzed genome assemblies of four F. virguliforme strains and identified 29 informative microsatellite markers. Sixteen of the 29 markers were used to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of this pathogen in a collection of 90 strains from Argentina and the USA. A total of 37 multilocus genotypes (MLGs) were identified, including 10 MLGs in Argentina and 26 in the USA. Only MLG2, the most dominant MLG, was found in both countries. Analyses with three different approaches showed that these MLGs could be grouped into three clusters. Cluster IA consisting of four MLGs exclusively from the USA has much higher genetic diversity than the other two clusters, suggesting that it may be the ancestral cluster although additional data are necessary to support this hypothesis. Clusters IB and II consisted of 13 and 21 MLGs, respectively. MLGs belonging to these two clusters were present in all four sampled states in Argentina and all five sampled states in the USA.

Keywords: Argentina; Fusarium virguliforme; USA; microsatellite marker; population structure; soybean; sudden death syndrome.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA, in-house project 5020-21000-008-00D. This research was supported in part by the appointment of Dr. Leandro Lopes da Silva to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Research Participation Program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) through an interagency agreement (#60-5020-1) between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). ORISE is managed by ORAU under DOE contract number DE-SC0014664. All opinions expressed in this paper are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the policies and views of USDA, DOE, or ORAU/ORISE.