Journal of Plant Pathology (2007) 89, p. S29 (Balmas et al.)

V. Balmas, M. Dufresne, G. Ortu, M.-J. Daboussi and Q. Migheli (2007)
Transposon tagging in Fusarium culmorum
Journal of Plant Pathology 89 (3, Suppl.), S29-S29
Poster Presentation at S.I.Pa.V XIV National Meeting - Perugia, Italy 19-21 Sept. 2007
Abstract: Crown and foot rot of wheat is an important soil-borne disease caused by several species of filamentous fungi. Fusarium culmorum (W.G. Smith) Sacc. is one of the most common incitants of this disease worldwide and is able to produce type B trichothecenes. Aiming at deciphering mechanisms involved in pathogenicity and mycotoxin production of F. culmorum, we have recently started a transposon-based mutagenesis approach to identify genes governing these characters without an a priori knowledge on their function. We first used the impala element, which was already shown to transpose in a wide range of Ascomycete species. A collection of 300 revertant strains was generated and tested for pathogenicity on wheat under glasshouse condition. Following two rounds of wheat assays, 7 mutants, more or less altered in pathogenicity, were identified among 175 strains with a reinsertion event. To date, one strain has been characterised in detail. Loss of pathogenicity results from the insertion of impala in a region close to the 5' end of a gene encoding a putative HMG Co-A reductase, a function already described as involved in F. graminearum pathogenicity (Seong et al. Fungal Genet. Biol. 43:34-41, 2006). In parallel, a systematic recovery of impala insertion sites was initiated in order to determine the insertional preference of this transposable element. More recently, we introduced the double component mimp/impala to compare the tagging efficiency of both systems. Work funded by the Ministry of University and Research (PRIN 2005: Fusarium crown and foot rot of wheat: effect of plant defense mechanisms on pathogenicity and on mycotoxin production).
Database assignments for author(s): Quirico Migheli

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Fusarium culmorum	Wheat (Triticum)