Identification of pathogenic genes in plant pathogen Fusarium verticilloides

CHED 856

Naresh Pandey, naresh43@uni.edu1, Nalin Goonesekere1, James Jurgenson, james.jurgenson@uni.edu2, and Tracy Bruns2. (1) Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Northern Iowa, 1200 W, 23rd St, Bartlett Hall 210B, Cedar Falls, IA 50613, (2) Department of Biology, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0421
Members of the genus Fusarium are economically important plant pathogens, and are known to cause destructive diseases in a wide variety of agriculturally important crops including maize, wheat, potato, cassava, sorghum and numerous vegetables. In maize, it causes stalk rots. F. verticillioides also produces mycotoxins such as fumonisins. Identification and characterization of the protein complement of F. verticillioides, particularly the genes associated with virulence (virulence genes) is an important step in understanding its biology and pathogenicity. Towards this end, we have investigated the newly sequenced genome of F. verticillioides through a bioinformatics analysis, and this investigation has resulted in the provisional identification of a set of virulence genes. In order to test these assignments experimentally, we are now constructing mutant strains of F. verticillioides, such that each contains the deletion of a gene provisionally identified as a virulence gene, using Hygromycin resistance as a marker for selection of deletions.
 

Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Biochemistry
2:00 PM-4:00 PM, Monday, April 7, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Hall A, Poster

Division of Chemical Education

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008