Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation for investigation of somatic recombination in the fungal pathogen Armillaria mellea.

ABSTRACT: Armillaria root disease is one of the most damaging timber and fruit tree diseases in the world. Despite its economic importance, many basic questions about the biology of the causal fungi, Armillaria spp., are unanswered. For example, Armillaria undergoes matings between diploid and haploid mycelia, which can result in a recombinant diploid without meiosis. Evidence of such somatic recombination in natural populations suggests that this reproductive mode may affect the pathogen's ecology. Investigations of the mechanisms and adaptive consequences of somatic recombination are, however, hampered by the lack of a method to reliably synthesize somatic recombinants. Here we report the first genetic transformation system for the genus Armillaria. We transformed A. mellea with selective markers

SUBMITTER: Baumgartner K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3008230 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature