TAGGING PATHOGENICITY GENES IN FUSARIUM GRAMINEARUM USING THE TRANSPOSON SYSTEM MIMP/IMPALA

Transposon mutagenesis was applied to generate mutants in Fusarium graminearum . The mimp1/impala system originally identified in F. oxysporum proved very promising for mutagenesis as the transposon and reinserted at high frequency in (the vicinity) of genes. A collection of mutants was screened for growth, for pathogenicity and for perithecia production. Several mutants blocked in one or more functions were obtained. The wild-type phenotype of one such mutant could be restored by complementation with a non-disrupted copy of the gene. In addition reinsertions occurred on each of the four chromosomes of F. graminearum , making this system a powerful tool in the functional analyses of the > 10,000 genes predicted in the F. graminearum genome.