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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Salinas, California » Crop Improvement and Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #408962
Research Project: Disease Management and Improved Detection Systems for Control of Pathogens of Vegetables and Strawberries

Location: Crop Improvement and Protection Research

Title: Species-specific primers derived from comparative genomics for PCR detection of Verticillium species

Author
item WANG, JUN - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item WANG, QIAN - Tianjin Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item Anchieta, Amy
item CHEN, RUI - Tianjin Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item DAI, XIAO-FENG - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item Klosterman, Steven
item CHEN, JIE-YIN - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item SUBBARAO, KRISHNA - University Of California
item ZHANG, DAN-DAN - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/17/2025
Publication Date: 3/21/2025
Citation: Wang, J., Wang, Q., Anchieta, A.G., Chen, R., Dai, X., Klosterman, S.J., Chen, J.Y., Subbarao, K.V., Zhang, D.D. 2025. Species-specific primers derived from comparative genomics for PCR detection of Verticillium species. Plant Disease. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-10-24-2227-RE.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-10-24-2227-RE

Interpretive Summary: Members of the fungal genus Verticillium cause Verticillium wilt disease on over 200 plant species worldwide. This research used comparative genomics analyses to identify DNA sequences that could be used to differentiate the 10 different species of Verticillium within the genus. Differentiating the 10 species is difficult using traditional means of morphological differences. This work is important to quickly enable rapid identification of the Verticillium species affecting plants or crops in a location, and for the assessment of the disease control measures used to control Verticillium wilt pathogens.

Technical Abstract: Verticillium is a small genus of ascomycete fungi containing ten species. Several of these species are destructive phytopathogens that cause vascular diseases on diverse crops including ornamentals in different regions of the world. Traditional methods of differentiating the species based on morphological characteristics can lead to misidentification. Although rapid PCR detection assays are available, there remains a lack of universal and accurate methods for the identification of the ten species. The aim of this research was to develop novel species-specific primers for the molecular detection of ten Verticillium species. The primers were designed based on screening of species-specific genomic regions. Among the ten primer sets tested, the detection limits ranged from approximately 0.1 ng to 1 ng of Verticillium DNA. The primer sets were further assessed on a collection of Verticillium strains from ten species.