Genetic diversity of Fusarium mexicanum, causal agent of mango and big-leaf mahogany malformation in Mexico

In Mexico, Fusarium mexicanum has been reported causing mango malformation disease and big-leaf mahogany malformation disease. Our objective was to determine the genetic diversity of F. mexicanum isolates obtained from malformed big-leaf mahogany and mango trees, using an internal simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analysis. A total of 61 isolates of F. mexicanum, 32 from mango and 29 from big-leaf mahogany, were initially genotyped using fourteen ISSR primers. Data from five primers that produced the highest number of polymorphic bands were selected for further analysis. The primers generated 49 polymorphic bands (85.96%) from a total of 57 fragments ranging in size from 250 to 2800bp, with an average of 11.4 bands per primer. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that the variation within populations, isolates grouped by host and geographic origin, was significant (43%), followed by the variation between the big-leaf mahogany versus mango isolates (34%), while among populations the variation was the lowest (22%). The genetic fingerprints suggested that genetic variability of F. mexicanum populations are structured by the host of origin rather than the geographic region.