Transformation of Didymella bryoniae mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Abstract:

Gummy stem blight, a plant disease caused by Didymella bryoniae, is one of the major diseases in melon. The disease can seriously reduce melon yield and quality. However, little information is available on the genetics and functional genomics of the fungal pathogen. In this study, we developed an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system for D. bryoniae by using a universal pathogenic isolate DB11 and the Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58C1 carriing plasmid pBIG2RHPH2 harboring the hygromycin B phosphotransferase gene (hph). Total 45 transformants could be obtained per 1×105 spores when 1×106 spores per milliliter of D. bryoniae spore suspension were cocultivated with Agrobacterium cells at OD600=0.15 for 48 h in the presence of induction medium (pH 5.2) containing acetosyringone at 200 μg/mL and selection medium contained 100 μg/mL of hygromycin B and 200 μg/mL of cefotaxime sodium, ampicillin and tetracycline, respectively. The transformants were stable when grown on PDA medium without hygromycin B for five times and were verified by PCR amplification with the hph primers and by Southern blot analysis with the hph probe. The transformation system will be useful for further studies of functional genes in D. bryoniae.