The necrotrophic fungus Thanatephorus cucumeris (anamorph Rhizoctonia solani) is among the most important soil-borne pathogens which causes tomato foot and root rot worldwide. We investigated virulence and genetic relationships among and within different taxonomic groups of R. solani from the tomato-growing regions in the north-east of Iran. Characterization of R. solani taxonomic groups revealed that, of 56 isolates, four were AG-2-1, 16 were AG-3 PT, 21 were AG-4 HG-I and 15 were AG-4 HG-II. Because interprimer binding site (iPBS), which is based on amplification of retrotransposons, is known as novel and powerful DNA fingerprinting technology, we selected four iPBS primers, which can detect polymorphisms of tomato foot root and root rot pathogen, for investigating genotypic variability of the isolates. The iPBS analyses separated various taxonomic groups of R. solani and showed great diversity among the isolates, demonstrating that the R. solani isolates obtained from tomato were not a clonal population. Crop rotation strategies and geographic location seem to be important factors affecting genetic structure of the isolates. Pathogenicity tests on tomato cultivar ‘Mobil’ showed significant differences in the virulence of various isolates. The overall results indicated that isolates of AG-3 and AG-4 were more virulent than AG-2- 1. There was no significant correlation between genetic diversity and virulence of the isolates. This is the first report of R. solani AG-4 HG-II, causing tomato foot and root rot. Also, our research is the first in assessment of genetic diversity in fungal populations using iPBS molecular markers.

Keywords