tuberosum (Table 2) The isolates

within this last subcla

tuberosum (Table 2). The isolates

within this last subclade formed two distinct groups (C1 and C2), which are highly supported by PP (0.92–1.00) and BS (52–92), respectively. The group C1 included sea turtle isolates and C2 included S. tuberosum isolates (Fig. 4). Most of the nongrouped isolates of subclade C were obtained from different infections of animals (Fig. 4). Eggs exposed to inoculum had a mortality rate of 83.3% (10 out of 12). Symptoms of fungal infection on the eggs resembled those observed in the field and were first seen 6 days after inoculation. Infected areas were characterized by a yellow, bluish color. The size of the infected area increased during incubation and eventually turned into a large necrotic lesion that resulted in the death of Epigenetics Compound Library datasheet the embryos and hatching failure. Fungi were isolated from infected areas and dead embryos, and their morphological study and molecular analysis revealed that all isolates were identical to the original strain used for inoculation. In control eggs, mortality rate was <8.3% (1 out of 12). These mortality rates were statistically significantly different (Fisher exact two-tailed,

P=0.03). From control eggs shells, isolation attempts did not yield any fungus. In this work, we demonstrate that a number of isolates of F. solani are responsible for embryonic mortality in the nesting areas of the sea turtle C. caretta in Boavista, Cape Verde. Although this fungal species has been AZD1208 cost described previously in association with different infections in animals,

including sea turtles (Rebell, 1981; Cabañes Quinapyramine et al., 1997), its role as a pathogen and its relationship with hatching success has never been investigated until the present study. The fungal isolates involved in the infection of C. caretta eggs in Boavista have been characterized morphologically and molecularly. Although the isolates were morphologically indistinguishable, their ITS sequences fell into two different subclades within F. solani clade III (A and C). In subclade A, some of the isolates were obtained from animals (5 out of 12) including two from sea turtles and the rest from plants (7 out of 12). In contrast, subclade C contained the majority of the animal isolates (24 out of 34), including those from sea turtles. Thus, there seems to be some animal host specificity in subclade C as it happens in other fungal groups (Berbee, 2001) and fungal-like organisms (Diéguez-Uribeondo et al., 2009). Despite this, further studies are needed to demonstrate possible host specificity. Inoculation challenge experiments with a representative sea turtle infecting F. solani isolate from subclade C indicate that they are pathogenic to C. caretta eggs, because the inoculations met Koch postulates; i.e., the F.

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