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Multiple Evolutionary Origins of the Fungus Causing Panama Disease of Banana: Concordant Evidence from Nuclear and Mitochondrial Gene Genealogies

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Multiple Evolutionary Origins of the Fungus Causing Panama Disease of Banana: Concordant Evidence from Nuclear and Mitochondrial Gene Genealogies Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 95, pp. 2044–2049, March 1998 Applied Biological Sciences Multiple evolutionary origins of the fungus causing Panama disease of banana: Concordant evidence from nuclear and mitochondrial gene genealogies KERRY O’DONNELL*†‡,H.CORBY KISTLER†§,ELIZABETH CIGELNIK*, AND RANDY C. PLOETZ¶ *National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, 1815 North University Street, Peoria, IL 61604; §Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611; and ¶University of Florida, Tropical Research and Education Center, 18905 SW 280th Street, Homestead, FL 33031-3314. Communicated by R. James Cook, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Pullman, WA, December 18, 1997 (received for review September 22, 1997) ABSTRACT Panama disease of banana, caused by the on the Cavendish clones in Southern Asia, however, threaten fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, is a serious con- their continued use by the export trades (4). straint both to the commercial production of banana and F. oxysporum is a cosmopolitan soilborne filamentous fun- cultivation for subsistence agriculture. Previous work has gus. A sexual state of the fungus never has been observed (5), indicated that F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense consists of several and significant gametic disequilibrium reported among isolates clonal lineages that may be genetically distant. In this study of F. oxysporum from banana is consistent with the hypothesis we tested whether lineages of the Panama disease pathogen that asexual reproduction is the predominant or exclusive have a monophyletic origin by comparing DNA sequences of reproductive strategy (6). Somatic fusion and heterokaryon nuclear and mitochondrial genes. DNA sequences were ob- formation between individuals can occur independent of sex- tained for translation elongation factor 1a and the mitochon- ual reproduction, but usually only among strains with similar drial small subunit ribosomal RNA genes for F. oxysporum genotypes (7). These exclusive networks of strains capable of strains from banana, pathogenic strains from other hosts and heterokaryosis have been called vegetative compatibility putatively nonpathogenic isolates of F. oxysporum. Cla- groups (VCGs) (8). dograms for the two genes were highly concordant and a Many isolates of F. oxysporum cause wilt diseases by sys- partition-homogeneity test indicated the two datasets could be temically colonizing and occluding the vascular tissue of their combined. The tree inferred from the combined dataset hosts (9). Plants with these diseases typically show symptoms resolved five lineages corresponding to ‘‘F. oxysporum f. sp. of wilting followed by death, hence the name ‘‘Fusarium wilt.’’ cubense’’ with a large dichotomy between two taxa represented Over 120 host-specific forms of F. oxysporum, known as formae by strains most commonly isolated from bananas with Pan- speciales, have been described (10); each forma specialis con- ama disease. The results also demonstrate that the latter two sists of strains with ability to cause wilt on a unique host or set taxa have significantly different chromosome numbers. F. of plant host species. Because the hosts of a given forma oxysporum isolates collected as nonpathogenic or pathogenic specialis usually are closely related, it has been assumed that to other hosts that have very similar or identical elongation members of a forma specialis are also closely related and may a factor 1 and mitochondrial small subunit genotypes as have arisen by descent from a common ancestor (7). However, banana pathogens were shown to cause little or no disease on results from recent work on F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense have banana. Taken together, these results indicate Panama dis- brought these assumptions into question. Koenig et al. (6) used ease of banana is caused by fungi with independent evolu- anonymous, single-copy restriction fragment length polymor- tionary origins. phisms (RFLPs) to define 10 clonal lineages from a worldwide collection of F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense. These results showed Bananas, interspecific and intraspecific hybrids of Musa acumi- that pathogens of banana could be as closely related to nata and M. balbisiana (Zingiberales: Musaceae), are peren- pathogens of other hosts, such as tomato, as they are to one nial herbs that originated in southeast Asia, but which now another. Considerable genetic diversity within F. oxysporum f. have a pantropical distribution (1). Despite their reputation as sp. cubense also has been inferred from the high level of dessert items in the industrialized world, they are of far greater chromosomal polymorphisms found among strains (11, 12), importance as staple foods for subsistence farmers in the random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprints (13), and tropics. Historically, diseases have been the most important from the number and geographic distribution of VCGs (4). constraint on banana whether for export or subsistence pro- The objectives of this study were to determine the phylo- duction. Panama disease or Fusarium wilt of banana, incited by genetic relationships among strains of F. oxysporum that cause the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, was the first Fusarium wilt of banana, and to determine whether the serious disease to affect bananas produced for the export trade collection of strains with specificity to banana have descended (2), and it ranks as one of the most destructive plant diseases from an exclusive common ancestor. To address these ques- of all time (3). Panama disease is still a serious threat to tions a subset of strains from different lineages, as assigned by subsistence production and significant efforts now are being RFLP data (6), were chosen for direct DNA sequence analysis made to breed resistant hybrids by international agricultural together with isolates of F. oxysporum that were either patho- research organizations. Before 1960, the disease had almost genic on other hosts or putatively nonpathogenic. Results of completely destroyed the export trade, which was saved only by the introduction of Cavendish cultivars that are generally Abbreviations: EF, elongation factor; mtSSU, mitochondrial small resistant to this disease. Recent outbreaks of Panama disease subunit; VCG, vegetative compatibility group; RFLP, restriction fragment length polymorphism; MPT, most parsimonious tree. The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. AF008446– payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked ‘‘advertisement’’ in AF008515, U34509, U34519, and U61608). accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. †The order of the first two authors is arbitrary. © 1998 by The National Academy of Sciences 0027-8424y98y952044-6$2.00y0 ‡To whom reprint requests should be addressed. e-mail: kodonnell@ PNAS is available online at http:yywww.pnas.org. sunca.ncaur.usda.gov. 2044 Downloaded by guest on September 23, 2021 Applied Biological Sciences: O’Donnell et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95 (1998) 2045 these studies indicate that strains of F. oxysporum that cause DNA Amplification and Sequencing. PCR amplification and disease in banana are not monophyletic and appear to have sequencing of the mitochondrial small subunit (mtSSU) rDNA multiple evolutionary origins. The implications of these results was performed by using reagents and primers described in and their bearing on the forma specialis concept are discussed. White et al. (16) and O’Donnell and Cigelnik (17). The 59 portions of translation elongation factor (EF) 1a coding region MATERIALS AND METHODS and introns were amplified with primers EF-1 and EF-2, which prime within conserved exons (Fig. 1). In addition to the Biological Materials. Fungal strains listed in Table 1 were amplification primers, one forward (EF-11) and two reverse derived from single microconidia and are stored cryogenically internal sequencing primers (EF-21 and EF-22) were used with at 2175°C in the Agricultural Research Service (NRRL) the fluorescent-labeled DyeDeoxy protocol (Perkin–Elmer) Culture Collection (National Center for Agricultural Utiliza- on an Applied Biosystems model 373 automated sequencer. tion Research, Peoria, IL). Genomic DNA, was prepared by Phylogenetic Analysis. Phylogenetic analyses were per- using a hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide protocol as formed by using PAUP 4.0d59 (18) on DNA sequences of the described previously (14). Pathogenicity of isolates to banana mtSSU rDNA and EF-1a gene, both as individual and as a was determined by the method of Ploetz and Shepard (15) with combined dataset for the 36 taxon matrix. Indels were coded minor modifications using tissue-culture-derived plantlets of as single events. Unweighted parsimony analyses were per- the banana cultivars Gros Michel, Bluggoe, and Pisang awak. formed on the individual datasets, excluding uninformative Experiments were terminated 6 weeks after planting, at which characters, using the heuristic search option with 1,000 random time plants were dissected to determine the extent of internal addition sequences with MULPARS on and tree bisection- symptom development. reconnection branch swapping. Maximum parsimony analysis of the combined dataset was by the branch-and-bound option Table 1. Strains used in this study in PAUP (18) for exact solutions. The two outgroup species NRRL selected for rooting the gene trees represent
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