Molecular variability of Leveillula taurica infecting chilli

The fungus Leveillula taurica (Lev.) Arn. infects chilli and incites powdery mildew disease. Field surveys conducted in 7 districts of Tamil nadu revealed that the disease incidence of chilli powdery mildew ranged from 22.74 to 53.36 per cent. Molecular variability among isolates of Leveillula taurica from chilli was studied. The iTs region of powdery mildew pathogen amplified with primers ITS1 and ITS4 yielded the PCR product of ∼ 630 bp in size. In the present study, an RAPD-PCR protocol was used to study genetic variability in the isolates of Leveillula taurica. The primer OPL-05 consistently amplified 630 bp to 1000 bp amplicons from L. taurica. Genetic coefficient matrix derived from the scores of RAPD profile showed that minimum and maximum per cent similarities among the Leveillula taurica were in the range of 11 to 26%, respectively.