Coffee berry disease pathogen in Africa: genetic structure and relationship to the group species Colletotrichum gloeosporioides
Abstract
Restriction fragment length polymorphisms of the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of isolates of the coffee berry disease pathogen in Africa, Colletotrichum kahawae, were analysed using rDNA from Saccharomyces carlsbergensis and mtDNA extracted from C. kahawae and C. gloeosporioides as probes. These analyses revealed homogeneity among C. kahawae isolates. The estimated sizes of the rDNA repeat unit and the mtDNA of C. kahawae were 8·4–9·18 kb and 60 kb, respectively. Polymorphisms were observed in rDNA and mtDNA when C. kahawae was compared with C. gloeosporioides from coffee, avocado and mango. However, an avocado isolate JIA1, from Australia, had an identical rDNA restriction pattern to C. kahawae when digested with BamH I and C. kahawae showed greater than 96% similarity to two C. gloeosporioides avocado isolates (918 and 1072) from New Zealand in mtDNA restriction fragment pattern. Random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis also grouped the C. kahawae isolates together. Nucleotide sequence of the internally transcribed spacer 1 region of the rDNA repeat unit of C. kahawae and C. gloeosporioides isolates from Coffea spp. differed by only two to three bases (98·8–98·2 % homology). Results obtained confirmed the close genetic relationship of C. kahawae to the group species C. gloeosporioides.
Citation
Sreenivasaprasad, S.; Brown, A.E.; Mills, P.R. Coffee berry disease pathogen in Africa: genetic structure and relationship to the group species Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. Mycological Research (1993) 97 (8) 995-1000. [DOI: 10.1016/S0953-7562(09)80868-X]