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Co-transformation of the sclerotial mycoparasite Coniothyrium minitans with hygromycin B resistance and β-glucuronidase markers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1999

EIRIAN JONES
Affiliation:
Soil, Plant and Ecological Sciences Division, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand Current address: Horticulture Research International, Wellesbourne, Warwick CV35 9EF.
MARGARET CARPENTER
Affiliation:
Soil, Plant and Ecological Sciences Division, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand
DAHNA FONG
Affiliation:
Molecular Genetics Group, The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd, Mt Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
ALAN GOLDSTEIN
Affiliation:
Soil, Plant and Ecological Sciences Division, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand Current address: Department of Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, U.S.A.
ANTHONY THRUSH
Affiliation:
Molecular Genetics Group, The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd, Mt Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
ROSS CROWHURST
Affiliation:
Molecular Genetics Group, The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd, Mt Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
ALISON STEWART
Affiliation:
Soil, Plant and Ecological Sciences Division, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand
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Abstract

Coniothyrium minitans was successfully co-transformed with the uidA (β-glucuronidase) and the hygromycin-resistance (hph) genes. Both were under the control of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate promoter from Aspergillus nidulans. Hygromycin resistance was used as a selectable marker for transformation. In successive transformation experiments, transformation frequencies of up to 1000 transformants μg−1 of plasmid DNA were obtained for isolate A69. Of the ten monospore hygromycin-resistant cultures tested, nine also expressed the uidA gene. Expression of hph and uidA was stable in all transformants after several months of successive subculturing on non-selective medium, and after passage through a sclerotium of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Southern hybridization analyses showed all transformants carried multiple copies of each marker gene. When grown on PDA, the culture morphology of three of the transformants of (T×2, T×3 and T×4) was similar to the wild type. Four of the five transformants (T×3, T×4, T×21 and T×24) grew as well as the wild type on different media, and responded to changes in water potential in a similar manner to the wild type. All five transformants were equally parasitic on sclerotia of S. sclerotiorum compared with the wild type. Transformants T×3 and T×4 were the most similar to the wild type in biological characteristics and will be used in future studies. The results indicate that hph- and uidA-transformed strains of C. minitans will be useful for ecological studies on its survival and dissemination.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
The British Mycological Society 1999

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