Genetic control of resistance to tridemorph inustilago maydis

Mutants ofUstilago maydis with low resistance to tridemorph isolated in a mutation frequency of 7x 10^-6 after UV-irradiation and selection on media containing 25 μg ml^-1 tridemorph. Genetic analysis with nine such mutant isolates resulted in the identification of two unlinked chromosomal loci,U/tdm- 1 andU/tdm- 2. TheU/tdm mutations are responsible for low resistance levels to tridemorph (resistance factor, Rf, of 3 or 5 based on effective concentration causing a 50% reduction in the growth rate (EC₅₀) or minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values, respectively) and low to moderate level of resistance to fenpropimorph (Rf 10 or 16 based on MIC or EC₅₀, respectively) and fenpropidin (Rf 5 or 11 based on MIC or EC₅₀, respectively). Haploid strains carrying bothU/tdm mutations exhibit higher levels of resistance to the above fungicides, indicating interallelic interaction between nonallelic genes. Crosses between mutants carrying theU/tdm- genes with compatible isolates carrying theU/fpm- 1 orU/fpm- 2 mutations, which were found in previous work to carry fenpropimorph resistance, yielded in all cases a large number of recombinants with wild-type sensitivity, indicating that the mutant genes involved were not allelic. Cross-resistance studies with the inhibitors of C-14 demethylase showed that. the U/tdm-mutations were responsible for increased sensitivity to the triazoles triadimefon, triadimenol, propiconazole and flusilazole, and to the pyridine pyrifenox. Study of gene effect on the fitness ofU. maydis showed thatU/tdm-mutations appeared to be pleiotropic, having more or less adverse effects on growth rate in liquid culture and pathogenicity on young corn plants.