Canadian Forest Service Publications
Geographic variation in the mitochondrial DNA of Chondrostereum purpureum. 1998. Ramsfield, T.D.; Punja, Z.K.; Shamoun, S.F.; Hintz, W.E. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 20(2): 213.
Year: 1998
Issued by: Pacific Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 5132
Language: English
Availability: Not available through the CFS (click for more information).
Abstract
The mitochondrial DNA of the biological control agent Chondrostereum purpureum was assessed as an indicator of total genetic variation in a sample population of isolates collected from North America, Europe, and New Zealand. Extraction and purification of the mitochondrial genome allowed calculation of an approximate size of 67 kb. Restriction digestion of the total mitochondrial DNA from eight isolates of C. purpureum with the restriction endonuclease BamHI and comparison of the resultant banding patterns by UPGMA analysis, indicated that isolates from British Columbia, Alberta, Finland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand had exactly the same restriction pattern. Two other isolates had different banding patterns and had similarity coefficients of 0.917 and 0.655 respectively. To study a large sample population, a rapid PCR based assay was developed. PCR primers were designed to amplify two sequence characterized amplified regions (SCARs). The first contained the NADH 4 gene and the second the ATPase VI and cytochrome b genes. Restriction digestion of the first SCAR with 24 restriction endonucleases failed to show any polymorphisms. Restriction digestion of the second SCAR with the endonuclease Nsi I was able to differentiate two mitochondrial haplotypes. A sample population of 84 isolates was screened and both haplotypes were found in all geographic regions surveyed. The calculated value of Nei's gene differentiation statistic, GST, was 0.0935; indicating that the diversity between sub-populations was not significantly different from the diversity within sub-populations. The two degree of variation in the total mitochondrial DNA, the inability of 24 restriction endonucleases to differentiate populations in the first SCAR, and the finding that two mitochondrial haplotypes are distributed throughout the sample population suggest that the risk of introducing rare mitochondrial genes into new regions as part of biological control activities is low.