Genetic diversity of Alternaria species associated with black point in wheat grains

Ainur Turzhanova; Oxana N Khapilina; Asem Tumenbayeva; Vladislav Shevtsov; Olesya Raiser; Ruslan Kalendar

doi:10.7717/peerj.9097

Genetic diversity of Alternaria species associated with black point in wheat grains

PeerJ. 2020 May 5:8:e9097. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9097. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ainur Turzhanova¹, Oxana N Khapilina¹, Asem Tumenbayeva¹, Vladislav Shevtsov¹, Olesya Raiser¹, Ruslan Kalendar²

Affiliations

¹ National Center for Biotechnology, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
² Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland.

Abstract

The genus Alternaria is a widely distributed major plant pathogen that can act as a saprophyte in plant debris. Fungi of this genus frequently infect cereal crops and cause such diseases as black point and wheat leaf blight, which decrease the yield and quality of cereal products. A total of 25 Alternaria sp. isolates were collected from germ grains of various wheat cultivars from different geographic regions in Kazakhstan. We investigated the genetic relationships of the main Alternaria species related to black point disease of wheat in Kazakhstan, using the inter-primer binding site (iPBS) DNA profiling technique. We used 25 retrotransposon-based iPBS primers to identify the differences among and within Alternaria species populations, and analyzed the variation using clustering (UPGMA) and statistical approaches (AMOVA). Isolates of Alternaria species clustered into two main genetic groups, with species of A.alternata and A.tennuissima forming one cluster, and isolates of A. infectoria forming another. The genetic diversity found using retrotransposon profiles was strongly correlated with geographic data. Overall, the iPBS fingerprinting technique is highly informative and useful for the evaluation of genetic diversity and relationships of Alternaria species.

Keywords: Alternaria; Fungi; Genetic diversity; Molecular marker; Retrotransposon.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the framework of program funding for research (AP05130404). Open access funding provided by University of Helsinki including Helsinki University Central Hospital. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.