First Report of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense VCG 0125 and VCG 01220 of Race 1 Infecting Cavendish Bananas (Musa sp. AAA) in India

• Authors : Thangavelu, R.; Gopi, M.; Pushpakanth, P.; Loganathan, M.; Edwin Raj, E.; Marimuthu, N.; Prabakaran, M.; Uma, S.


• Document type : Journal article


• Year of publication : 2020


• Journal title : Plant Disease


• Volume (number) : 105 (4)




• Pages : 1215


• Peer-reviewed : Yes


• ISSN : 0191-2917


• Language(s) : English


• Abstract : Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) is the most devastating disease affecting commercial and subsistence cultivation of banana (Musa spp.) worldwide. Generally, the Cavendish bananas are resistant to Foc race 1 (R1) that destroyed cultivar Gros Michel (AAA) and susceptible to tropical race 4 (TR4), which is causing severe epidemics in different banana-growing countries including India (Thangavelu et al. 2019). In 2019, a roving survey was conducted in major banana-growing states of India such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu to assess the incidence of Fusarium wilt disease in Cavendish bananas and also to characterize the pathogens by different methods including vegetative compatibility grouping (VCG) and molecular methods. The Fusarium wilt incidence in cultivar Grand Naine (Cavendish group-AAA) was 6 to 65% in Bihar, 30 to 45% in Uttar Pradesh, 5 to 15% in Gujarat, and 15 to 21% in Tamil Nadu. For characterization, a total of 61 samples from the Fusarium wilt-infected Cavendish bananas were collected, and single-spore culture of Foc was obtained. The morphological characterization revealed the presence of one to two oval- to kidney-shaped cells in false heads and sickle-shaped macroconidia and a foot-shaped basal cell. The pathogenicity was demonstrated by adopting randomized block design with five replications on cultivar Grand Naine. Koch's postulates were successfully completed by reisolation of the inoculated Foc pathogen and characterization by PCR method. The VCG analysis carried out using nit-M testers of all known VCGs indicated the presence of VCG 0125 from the Foc samples collected from cultivar Grand Naine grown in Uttar Pradesh (Siswabazar of Maharakanj district) and Tamil Nadu (Cumbum of Theni district), VCG 01220 from the Foc samples collected from cultivar Grand Naine grown in Uttar Pradesh (Siswabazar of Maharakanj district) and Gujarat (Kamrej of Surat district), and VCG 01213/16 from Foc samples collected from Uttar Pradesh (Siswabazar of Maharakanj district) and Bihar (Falka village of Katihar district). The molecular confirmation of VCG 0125 and 01220 (Foc R1) isolates was carried out by PCR method using the primer sets SIX6b_210_F/SIX6b_210_R (Carvalhais et al. 2019) for Foc R1, Foc TR4-F/Foc TR4-R (Dita et al. 2010) for Foc TR4, and Foc-1/Foc-2 (Lin et al. 2009) for race 4. The results showed that only the primer set for Foc R1 generated the expected amplicon size of 210 bp in the Foc isolates of VCG 0125 and 01220. Besides, the sequencing of translation elongation factor (TEF) 1-α gene and BLAST searches in GenBank for the representative Foc isolates of VCG 0125 (GenBank no. MW 286800) showed 99.84% similarity to Foc R1 (KX365393.1), and Foc isolates of VCG 01220 (GenBank no. MW 286803) showed 99.69% similarity to Foc R1 (KX365413.1). Further, a phylogenetic analysis performed using the TEF1-α gene sequences showed that the Foc R1 isolates (VCGs 0125 and 01220) from India were grouped with known Foc R1 isolates from Tanzania and Australia. Based on the experimental results, the study has confirmed the presence of VCGs 0125 and 01220 of Foc R1 in cultivar Grand Naine in India. Because these VCGs are the most widely distributed and have not been found to infect Cavendish bananas so far (Mostert et al. 2017), this report is very important from the quarantine and management perspectives. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of VCGs 0125 and 01220 of Foc R1 in cultivar Grand Naine in India.


• Keywords : FUSARIUM OXYSPORUM F. SP. CUBENSE; CAVENDISH AAA; INDIA; FUSARIUM WILT; FIRST REPORT


• Open access : Yes


• Document on publisher's site : View article on publisher's site


• Musalit document ID : IN200758

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