Biologie cellulaire et du développement
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A Simple and Rapid Glass Bead Transformation Method for a Filamentous Fungus Fusarium oxysporum

Neeru Singh and Manchikatla Venkat Rajam

The genetic manipulation in filamentous fungi has always remained a challenge, which is necessary to study gene functions in pathogenic fungi so as to gain insight into the molecular processes necessary for pathogenesis. The fulfillment of this objective depends on the availability of suitable transformation method. Fusarium oxysporum is a plant pathogenic filamentous fungus, which causes vascular wilt disease in a wide variety of plants. The current transformation methods used for this fungus are particle bombardment, Agrobacterium tumefaciens- and protoplastmediated transformation. In this study, we have developed an easy, rapid and reproducible protocol for transformation of F. oxysporum by using glass beads in combination with polyethylene glycol. We utilized the GFP gene construct for developing this transformation protocol. The transformation frequency of about 15 transformants per μg of DNA was obtained. This simple transformation method may be adopted for other filamentous fungi.