@article{Sutherland_Viljoen_Myburg_van den Berg_2013, title={Pathogenicity associated genes in Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense race 4}, volume={109}, url={https://sajs.co.za/article/view/3886}, DOI={10.1590/sajs.2013/20120023}, abstractNote={<p><em>Fusarium oxysporum </em>f. sp. <em>cubense </em>(<em>Foc</em>) is a fungus that infects banana roots and causes a destructive plant disease called Fusarium wilt. <em>Foc </em>consists of three pathogenic races (<em>Foc </em>races 1, 2 and 4), classified according to their selective impairment of banana cultivars. <em>Foc </em>race 4 is economically important as it comprises strains that infect Cavendish bananas, which are the most widely planted variety of bananas in the world, in both the tropics (<em>Foc </em>TR4) and subtropics (<em>Foc </em>STR4). The aim of this study was to investigate which genes are potentially involved in fungal pathogenicity by comparing transcript-derived cDNA fragments (TDFs) from <em>Foc </em>STR4 and TR4 to those from non-pathogenic <em>F. oxysporum </em>using cDNA-AFLP analysis. This comparison resulted in the identification of 229 unique gene fragments which include the putative pathogenicity-related TDFs encoding chitinase class V (<em>chsV</em>), GTPase activating protein, Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) multidrug transporter and serine/threonine protein kinase (<em>ste12</em>) genes. Quantitative analysis of transcript abundance showed a significant increase in expression of <em>chsV</em>, MFS multidrug transporter and <em>ste12 </em>genes in <em>Foc </em>STR4 and TR4 compared with the non-pathogenic <em>F. oxysporum</em>. These genes play a role in escaping host defence responses and in cell wall degradation. In addition, pathogenicity-related genes from other <em>formae speciales </em>of <em>F. oxysporum</em>, such as the sucrose non-fermenting, cytochrome P450 and F-box protein required for pathogenicity genes, were significantly up-regulated in <em>Foc </em>STR4 and TR4 but not in <em>F. oxysporum </em>isolates non-pathogenic to banana. This study provides the first <em>in vitro </em>comparative analysis of TDFs expressed in pathogenic <em>Foc </em>race 4 isolates and non-pathogenic <em>F. oxysporum </em>isolates from banana.</p>}, number={5/6}, journal={South African Journal of Science}, author={Sutherland, René and Viljoen, Altus and Myburg, Alexander A. and van den Berg, Noëlani}, year={2013}, month={May}, pages={10} }