Molecular diversity of Ascochyta rabiei isolates from chickpea in Alberta, Canada

Abstract

During the summer of 2003 and 2004, a total of 58 isolates of Ascochyta rabiei were collected from chickpea plants grown in southern Alberta, Canada. RAPD analysis of genomic DNA extracted from these isolates was conducted using six short sequence primers (OPA-03, OPA-13, OPB-07, OPC-01, OPC-20 and OPJ-15) and analyzed to establish the genetic relationship and distance between isolates. A total of 75 bands were polymorphic. The 58 isolates were found to belong to five genotypes, indicating that the A. rabiei population of southern Alberta is genetically diverse. No relationship was found between the genotype groupings obtained through RAPD analysis and previously determined pathotype classifications of the same isolates. © 2008 Asian Network for Scientific Information.