Transformation of Fusarium oxysporum by particle bombardment and characterisation of the resulting transformants expressing a GFP transgene

Abstract

Fusarium is the causative agent of a variety of economically significant vascular wilt diseases of vegetables, flowers and field crops. The completion of the first Fusarium genome and the availability of an EST database now provides a platform for both forward and reverse genetic approaches to ascribe gene function in this phytopathogen. To underpin these strategies effective gene transfer procedures will be required. Here we describe an efficient and robust procedure for Fusarium oxysporum transformation based on particle bombardment. We utilised this procedure to introduce a chimeric gene comprised of the Aspergillus nidulans Pgdp promoter fused to a GFP reporter gene. A transformation efficiency of 45 transformants per mug of plasmid DNA was routinely achieved. The Pgdp promoter directed strong cytoplasmic expression of the GFP marker in transformed F. oxysporum monitored via fluorescence and confocal microscopy. A pathogenicity assay undertaken on Arabidopsis seedlings with selected transformants revealed that virulence was retained following transformation. Moreover, in a similar fashion to wild-type F. oxysporum, these transformants activated three distinct Arabidopsis defence gene promoter::luciferase fusions, which defined specific defence gene subsets.