Genetic variability Among Sorghum smut diseases Caused by Sporisorium spp.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the genetic variability of Sorghum smut fungal species of Sporisorium, isolates collected from infected Sorghum plants during 2019 from two regions of Sorghum cultivation in Damascus and its countryside, 12 primers for ISSR marker were used on 7 fungal isolates, Results showed that all of them had the ability to amplify one or multi sites of the fungal genome. The total number of amplified fragments was 99, with a polymorphism rate of 95.25%. and the average polymorphic information content coefficient ranged between 0.25 with the primer ISSR8 and 0.42 with primers ISSR1 and ISSR3.and the genetic similarity ranged between 0.495 and 0,73. the lowest value was 0.495 between the two isolates of loose smut SS and head smut A19 which indicates that there is a large genetic variation between them While the highest value of genetic similarity was 0,73 between the two isolates of Long smut LS and LM, That indicates a large degree of genetic relationship, The phylogenetic tree showed that the isolates can be divided into two main groups at a genetic similarity level of 0.286. The first group included Sporisorium reilianum and S. ehrenbergii isolates and the second group included S. sorghi and S. cruentum isolates. The isolates from the same species grouped together although that they were from different Sorghum species This is the first study on genetic variability of Sorghum smut species in Syria and Our results indicate the possibility of using the ISSR technique to study genetic relationship among them.