Pathogenicity,vegetative compatibility and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fusarium oxysporum</Emphasis> f. sp. <Emphasis Type="Italic">radicis-cucumerinum</Emphasis> isolates from Turkish greenhouses

The objective of the current study was to characterize Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-cucumerinum isolates from cucumbers in Turkey in terms of pathogenicity, vegetative compatibility and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) variation. In the 2007 and 2008 greenhouse cucumber-growing seasons, surveys were conducted in Adana, Antalya, Hatay and Mersin provinces of the Mediterranean region of Turkey. Forty-seven fungal isolates of F. oxysporum were recovered from diseased cucumber plants. The pathogenicity of each isolate was tested on cucumber seedlings at the one-true-leaf stage. Forty of the 47 isolates of F. oxysporum were virulent on cucumber seedlings. Based on disease symptoms, the differential effect of temperatures of 17°C and 29°C on disease development, and the virulence on cucumber seedlings, these 40 isolates were identified as F. oxysporum f. sp. radicis-cucumerinum. Nitrate non-utilizing mutants were generated on minimal medium containing 1.5% KClO₃ and their phenotypes were determined. Mutants in different phenotypic classes were paired on minimal medium; of 40 F. oxysporum f. sp. radicis-cucumerinum isolates, thirty-eight were placed into VCG 0260. Remaining two strains were assigned to VCG 0261. The AFLP primers produced a total of 180 fragments between 200 and 500 bp in length for the 30 isolates tested. At a genetic similarity of 0.71, the UPGMA analysis separated the isolates into two distinct clusters. The first cluster, AFLP I, included 28 isolates, of which all belonged to VCG 0260. Two strains in the second AFLP cluster both belonged to VCG 0261.