Hypovirulent strain of the violet root rot fungus Helicobasidium mompa

The hyphal tip was isolated from 13 weakly or moderately virulent strains of Helicobasidium mompa to remove double-stranded (ds) RNAs and demonstrate their role as the hypovirulence factor. All of 829 hyphal tip subcultures retained dsRNAs. However, strain v670 containing two large fragments (10kb) and one small fragment (ca. 2.3kb) of dsRNA lost the largest fragment in 3 of 63 subcultures analyzed. One of the three subcultures (v670hti) was used to inoculate carrots to regain virulence compared to the parental strain v670. When isolate v670hti was paired with v670, the largest fragment was reintroduced to v670hti, and its virulence was diminished. Northern blot analysis with two probes hybridizing dsRNA fragments in most H. mompa strains revealed that the largest fragment involved in hypovirulence was different from two other fragments that are common in Japan. These results indicate that the largest dsRNA fragment in strain v670 is associated with hypovirulence in H. mompa.