Genetic Diversity of Wilt and Root Rot Pathogens of Chickpea, as Assessed by RAPD and ISSR

Intra - and interspecific polymorphisms among fungal pathogens that cause wilt and root rot on chickpea were investigated by using 30 RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) and 20 ISSR (inter-simple sequence repeats) primers. UPGMA (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average) cluster analysis of RAPD and ISSR datasets using Dice's coefficient differentiated all fungal isolates from each other and revealed considerable genetic variability between the isolates. The isolates that were not easily separable using morphological characteristics were classified again according to their branching in dendrograms. A partial correlation was observed between cluster analysis and geographic origin of Fusarium solani isolates. Additionally, high cophenetic correlation values for RAPD and ISSR data, using the MXCOPH algorithm, were observed (0.983 and 0.987, respectively). The results show that both analyses were suitable for the evaluation of genetic polymorphisms among fungal populations.