Effector Profiles of Endophytic Fusarium Associated with Asymptomatic Banana (Musa sp.) Hosts

During the infection of a host, plant pathogenic fungi secrete small proteins called effectors, which then modulate the defence response of the host. In the Fusarium oxysporum species complex (FOSC), the secreted in xylem (SIX) gene effectors are important for host-specific pathogenicity, and are also useful markers for identifying the various host-specific lineages. While the presence and diversity of the SIX genes has been explored in many of the pathogenic lineages of F. oxysporum, there is a limited understanding of these genes in non-pathogenic, endophytic isolates of F. oxysporum. In this study, universal primers for each of the known SIX genes are designed and used to screen a panel of endophytically-associated Fusarium species isolated from healthy, asymptomatic banana tissue. SIX gene orthologues are identified in the majority of the Fusarium isolates screened in this study. Furthermore, the SIX gene profiles of these endophytic isolates do not overlap with the SIX genes present in the pathogenic lineages of F. oxysporum that are assessed in this study. SIX gene orthologues have not been commonly identified in Fusarium species outside of the FOSC nor in non-pathogenic isolates of F. oxysporum. The results of this study indicate that the SIX gene effectors may be more broadly distributed throughout the Fusarium genus than previously thought. This has important implications for understanding the evolution of pathogenicity in the FOSC.