AFLP as a fingerprinting tool for characterising isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis causal organism for fusarium wilt disease of oil palm in Ghana.

Fusarium wilt is a damaging disease of oil palm in Ghana. Genetic diversity of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis (Foe) the causal organism of the disease was studied via AFLP technique using fluorescence-based automated system for Foe isolates from Ghana in comparison with other Foe isolates from different geographical locations. AFLP was conducted using thirteen MseI primers with three sets of EcoRI primers to generate individual phylogenetic trees. A concatenated phylogenetic tree was constructed from AFLP data using the three primer pairs. Individual phylogenetic trees for each of the primers could cluster Foe isolates from Ghana distinctively from Foe isolates collected in different geographical locations. Isolates from Ghana could not be clustered under one clade for all the individual phylogenetic trees, and this was further confirmed in the concatenated phylogenetic trees for the three-primer dataset that involved 4438 and 117 random markers of polymorphic bands. The use of AFLP has shown more genetic information about Foe isolates from Ghana compared with other collections from different geographical areas. AFLP markers showed all Foe isolates from Ghana are not monophyletic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]