XVI International Botanical Congess

We are determining the mating types of FOC, the asexual pathogen of the banana by either PCR with mating type specific primers or hybridization with mating type probes. Mating type 1 (mat-1) was identified by PCR amplification in some but not all of the strains of four of the fifteen vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) tested. Strains from VCGs 0120,0124/5,01210 and 0122 tested positive for mat-1 by PCR. The mat-1 fragment has been cloned and sequenced. It is 94% identical with the published mat-1 sequence for Fusarium oxysporum. This region will be used as a hybridization probe to determine if all the strains of a VCG, which should represent a clonal lineage, have the mat-1 region. Funded by NIH grant # SO6GM08205.