PCR-RFLP for detection of Fusarium graminearum genotypes with resistance to phenamacril
Phenamacril is a cyanoacrylate fungicide that provides excellent control of Fusarium head blight (FHB) or wheat scab, which is caused predominantly by Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium asiaticum. Previous studies revealed that codon mutations of the myosin-5 gene of Fusarium spp. conferred resistance to phenamacril in vitro lab experiments. In this study, PCR-RFLP (polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism) was developed to detect three common mutations (A135T, GCC to ACC at codon 135; S217L, TCA to TTA at codon 217, and E420K, GAA to AAA at codon 420) in F. graminearum induced by fungicide domestication in vitro. PCR products of 841 bp (for mutation of A135T), 802 bp (for mutation of S217L) or 1649 bp (for mutation of E420K) in myosin-5 gene were amplified respectively by appropriate primer pairs. Restriction enzyme KpnⅠ, TasⅠ or DraⅠ was used to distinguish phenamacril-sensitive and -resistant strains with mutation genotypes of A135T, S217L and E420K, respectively. KpnⅠ digested the 841 bp PCR products of phenamacri-resistant strains with codon mutation A135T into two fragments of 256 bp and 585 bp. In contrast, KpnⅠ did not digest the PCR products of sensitive strains. TasⅠ digested the 802 bp PCR products of phenamacril-strains with codon mutation S217L into three fragments of 461 bp, 287bp and 54 bp. In contrast, TasⅠ digestion of the 802 bp PCR products of phenamacril-sensitive strains resulted in only two fragments of 515bp and 287bp. DraⅠ digested the 1649 bp PCR products of phenamacril-resistant strains with codon mutation E420K into two fragments of 932 bp and 717 bp, while the PCR products of phenamacril-sensitive strains was not digested. The three genotypes of resistance mutations were determined by analyzing electrophoresis patterns of the digestion fragments of PCR products. The PCR-RFLP method was evaluated on 48 phenamacril-resistant strains induced by fungicide domestication in vitro and compared with the conventional method (mycelial growth on fungicide-amended agar). The accuracy of the PCR-RFLP method for detecting the three resistant mutation genotypes of F. graminearum to phenamacril was 95.12% compared with conventional method. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that the PCR-RFLP method could also be used to detect the codon mutations of A135T and E420K in F. asiaticum.