Race identification and differentiation of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri causing chickpea wilt

Abstract

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Ciceri (FOC) caused vascular wilt is one of the main causes of reduced productivity in chickpeas. Identification and differentiation of races is crucial for integrated management of wilt. Differential screening of chickpea using several genotypes of the crop were the primitive method of race identification and this is very time consuming and laborious method. Molecular identification and characterization of four different races of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri was conducted using different marker techniques, like ITS (Inter transcribed spacers), SCAR (Sequence characterized amplified region) and FDP (Fibrinogen degradation products) primers. Among 11 FDP primers and three SCAR primers used in the experiment most of them were used to differentiate races of pathogen more effectively. FDP 25 and FDP 3 differentiated FOC1, whereas FDP 11, FDP 12, FDP 14, FocR0-M15 and FocR6-O2 was able to differentiate FOC2 from other races. FOC3 is distinguished by FDP 22 and FDP 3 differentiate FOC 4 with a band size of 400 bp. These primer combinations can be used to distinguish between the many races of F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceri.