Preliminary study on horizontal transfer and loss of the AM toxin gene of Alternaria

Ting Chen, Jiling Dang, Peng Zhang, Jinju Shi and Jia Feng
Additional contact information
Jiling Dang: Shuifa Haohai (Jiuquan) Agricultural Development Co., Ltd, Jiuquan, Gansu, P. R. China
Peng Zhang: Shuifa Haohai (Jiuquan) Agricultural Development Co., Ltd, Jiuquan, Gansu, P. R. China
Jinju Shi: Shuifa Haohai (Jiuquan) Agricultural Development Co., Ltd, Jiuquan, Gansu, P. R. China
Jia Feng: School of Life Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, P. R. China

Plant Protection Science, 2024, vol. 60, issue 2, 151-160

Abstract: The genus Alternaria has a global distribution and consists of a diverse group of pathogens. Plant-pathogenic Alternaria spp. can reduce the crop yield and pose serious threats to agricultural production. The pathogen A. mali is recognised as the key the pathogenic mechanism in the early defoliation of apples, which produces the host specific toxin (HST) that was named as an apple specific toxin (a specialised toxin of A. alternata pv. mali, AM toxin). The phenomenon of horizontal transfer of the AM toxin gene from different strains of A. alternata was found, and the relationship between the AM toxin and pathogenicity was confirmed. The representative strain A. tuberculata with the AM toxin gene was co-cultured with sixteen Alternaria strains without the AM toxin gene. As a result, four strains from different Alternaria species obtained the AM toxin gene, which indicated that the AM toxin gene can transfer among different Alternaria species. The AM toxin gene is easy to be lost after subculture, and high temperature and low nutrition can promote this loss. The symptoms of the Alternaria pathogen with or without the AM toxin gene are obviously different on the host. When infected by a pathogen with the AM toxin gene, green spots formed on the apple leaves, and rotten disease spots appeared in the fruit carpels. Contrary to this, when infected by a pathogen without this gene, only small epidermal spots without chlorosis formed on the apple leaves, and mildew-heart spots appeared in the fruit carpels.

Keywords: Alternaria spp.; AM toxin; horizontal transfer; pathogenicity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://pps.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/106/2023-PPS.html (text/html)
http://pps.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/106/2023-PPS.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlpps:v:60:y:2024:i:2:id:106-2023-pps

DOI: 10.17221/106/2023-PPS

Access Statistics for this article

Plant Protection Science is currently edited by Ing. Eva Karská, (Executive Editor PPS)

More articles in Plant Protection Science from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().