Soil runs dry. The sun scorches. Plagues run rampant. We burn, we are sacked and pillaged, and destroyed, Almost like Roma, Roma, Roma. –Section IV from “A Tragedy in Five Tomatoes” by Héctor Oliveras Garcia “Plagues run rampant” is a perfect description of North Carolina in the summer! We have heat, humidity, the occasional hurricane …
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- Pieces of the plant tissue were surface sanitized to remove any microbes on the external surfaces. Pieces were then placed on a sterile petri plate with nutrien agar. After a few days the endogenous Fusarium began to grow.
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- Comparison of the sequence of the Avr2 gene from the fungal isolate in my plant #3 to known sequences of Avr2 found in Races 2 & 3. The sequence of my fungal isolate is a perfect match to the known Race 2 Avr2 sequence. There are three differences (highlighted in green) between my isolate and known Race 3 isolates. We can conclude that plant #3 was infected by Fusarium Race 2.
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- The PCR was designed to make millions of copies of only the Avr1 gene, which is found in Fusarium Race 1 and not Race 2 or 3. If the Fusarium in my plants is Race 1 we expect a bright band to show up on the agarose gel. It’s clear that the Fusarium growing in plants #1 and #2 is Fusarium Race 1 since a large spot of copied DNA is visible. Plant #3 is either Race 2 or Race 3 because no Avr1 was there to be copied and no band shows up on the agarose gel.
Chris Kafer 