Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Gibberella fujikuroi--Genetics; Corn--Diseases and pests; Fusarium diseases of plants; Academic theses;
Abstract
Fusarium verticillioides is a pathogenic fungus that causes infection of crops and vegetables such as corn, wheat, potato, cassava, banana, potato and sorghum. It causes various diseases in corn such as seedling blight, root, stalk, and ear rot. Pathogenic Fusarium species have caused billions of dollars of damage through reduced yield. F.verticillioides also produces mycotoxins such as fumonisin. Consumption of contaminated grain can cause various diseases in animals such as pulmonary oedema in pigs and leukoencephalomalacia in horses, and may be associated with esophageal cancer in humans. Identification of virulence genes in F. verticillioides will help in understanding its biology and pathogenicity. For these purpose deletion mutants of F. verticillioides were created using a double joint PCR method. The putative virulence gene was replaced by a marker gene, the hygromycin phosphotransferase gene. For this purpose, the hygromycin phosphotransferase cassette was first cloned into TOPO™ cloning vector to create hygromycin phosphotransferase transformation vector and then transformed into fungal protoplasts. Transformants were identified on the basis of their growth in Fusarium complete medium containing hygromycin. PCR amplification methods were used to confirm the deletion. Two mutants containing deletions of genes FV_00027 and NPS6 were generated in this study. A morphological study of these deletion mutants was performed in three growth media. Experimental protocols were also developed for the performance of virulence assays.
Year of Submission
2010
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
First Advisor
Nalin Goonesekere
Second Advisor
James Jurgenson
Third Advisor
Ira Simet
Date Original
2010
Object Description
1 PDF file (121 leaves)
Copyright
©2010 Divya Chouhan
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Chouhan, Divya, "Identification of Virulence Genes in the Corn Pathogen Fusarium verticillioides" (2010). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2342.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2342
Comments
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