Diversity of microsatellites in natural populations of ascomycetous fungus, Emericella nidulans, in Israel on local and regional scales

Abstract

The genetic divergence of Israeli populations of soil ascomycetous fungus Emericella nidulans was studied on regional and local scales using seven microsatellite (SSR) trinucleotide markers. The study was performed in the framework of the "Evolution Canyon" research program at the Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, in three "Evolution Canyons" (EC): EC I (Mt. Carmel), EC II (western Upper Galilee), and EC III (the southern Negev desert). The first two canyons (EC I and EC II) are located in the northern part of Israel at a distance of 38 km. EC III is located to the south at a distance of nearly 350 km from the northern ECs. In each canyon, E. nidulans strains were isolated from the opposite slopes and (in EC III) the valley bottom. All three EC populations of E. nidulans were found to be genetically distinct. The estimated genetic divergences correspond to geographical distances and ecological differences among the three studied microsites. On a regional scale, SSR polymorphism tends to increase with severity of ecological conditions. In general, the effect of "structural" factors (predicted number of repeats in SSR markers and distance to the centromere) in the microsatellite diversity was higher compared to ecological factors.

The mode of reproduction in natural populations of ascomycetous fungus,Emericella nidulans, from Israel

“…Growth of the strains, DNA isolation, PCR amplification and statistical analysis were performed as it was described in our previous work (Hosid et al, 2005(Hosid et al, , 2008. The Spearman rank correlation test (StatSoft, 1996) was employed to estimate correlation between the variability of SSR markers (variance in repeat number) and physical distance from the markers to the centromere (% of chromosome arm length) (Table 1).…”

“…Previously, we studied the genetic variation of Israeli populations of E. nidulans on regional and local scales using seven microsatellite (simple sequence repeats or SSR) markers (Hosid et al, 2008). The study was performed in the framework of the ' Evolution Canyon ' research programme at the Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, focusing on the effect of microscale environmental variability on biodiversity patterns (Nevo, 2001) in three ' Evolution Canyons' (ECs).…”

Evaluating Short Sequence Repeats (SSRs) Markers in Sordaria fimicola by High Resolution Melt Analysis

“…It is believed that population performance is significantly related with genetic variation and natural selection which increase fitness of organism (Frankham, 2005). The ascomycete's soil fungus Emericella nidulans reveal high polymorphism in stress and arid environment when SSR markers applied (Hosid et al, 2008). Saleem et al (2001) also reported higher incidences of crossing over and gene conversion were in the strains isolated from SFS than strains from the NFS.…”

Microsatellite Diversity in Natural Populations of Ascomycetous Fungus, Emericella Nidulans, from Different Climatic-Edaphic Conditions in Israel

“…Previously, we studied the genetic divergence of Israeli populations of E. nidulans on regional and local scales using seven microsatellite markers (Hosid et al, 2008). The study was performed in three "Evolution Canyons" located in different Israeli regions in the framework of the "Evolution Canyon" research program at the Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, focusing on the effect of microscale environmental variability on biodiversity patterns (Nevo, 2001).…”

“…Carmel (EC I, 32º43¢N, 34º58¢E); Lower Nahal Keziv, western Upper Galilee Downloaded by [University of Reading] at 05:01 03 January 2015 (EC II, 33º02¢N, 35º11¢E), and Nahal Shaharut, the southern Negev desert (EC III,29º55¢N,34º58¢E). For detailed description of the canyons see Hosid et al (2008). EC I and EC II, located in the northern part of Israel, are characterized by sharply different microclimatic conditions (Pavliček et al, 2003).…”