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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Salinas, California » Crop Improvement and Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #355195
Research Project: Management of Pathogens for Strawberry and Vegetable Production Systems

Location: Crop Improvement and Protection Research

Title: Detection of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fragariae from infected strawberry plants

Author
item Burkhardt, Alyssa
item KOIKE, STEVEN - Trical Inc
item HENRY, PETER - University Of California
item GORDON, THOMAS - University Of California
item Martin, Frank

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/10/2018
Publication Date: 5/7/2019
Citation: Burkhardt, A.K., Koike, S.T., Henry, P.M., Gordon, T.R., Martin, F.N. 2019. Detection of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fragariae from infected strawberry plants. Plant Disease. 103:1006-1013. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-08-18-1315-RE.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-08-18-1315-RE

Interpretive Summary: This manuscript describes the development of diagnostic assays using DNA based tools for rapid detection and quantification of a pathogen capable of causing significant losses of commercial strawberry plants. Its availability will simplify and speed up the diagnostics of this pathogen.

Technical Abstract: Isolates of the Fusarium oxysporum species complex (FOSC), have been characterized as plant pathogens that commonly cause vascular wilt, stunting, and yellowing of the leaves in a variety of hosts. FOSC isolates have been grouped into formae speciales (f. sp.) based on their ability to cause disease on a specific host. F. oxysporum f. sp. fragariae is the causal agent of Fusarium wilt of strawberry, and has become a threat to production as fumigation practices have changed in California. F. oxysporum f. sp. fragariae is polyphyletic and limited genetic markers are available for its detection. In this study, next-generation sequencing and comparative genomics were used to identify a unique genetic locus that can detect all the somatic compatibility groups of F. oxysporum f. sp. fragariae identified in California. This locus was used to develop a TaqMan qPCR assay and an isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay that have very high sensitivity and specificity for over 180 different isolates of the pathogen tested. The results of the RPA assay from many field samples were validated with pathogenicity tests of recovered isolates.