THE INFLUENCE OF GENOTYPE AND ENVIRONMENT ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND METABOLIC DIVERSITY OF FUSARIUM-COMPACTUM

Fungal species produce a large variety of secondary metabolites which are of considerable interest to the pharmaceutical industry. It is cle ar that the secondary metabolite production of a species varies signif icantly in strains from different geographic locations and from differ ent habitats. The influence of genotype and environment on metabolite production is, however, poorly understood. In this study we examined t he influence of genotypic variability, physiological variability, envi ronmental location, and habitat on metabolite production by Fusarium c ompactum. Isolates of the fungus from two geographic locations and two distinct habitat types were examined for growth on 95 different carbo n sources, and genotypic variability was determined using RAPDs and rD NA-RFLP analysis. In a blind test secondary metabolite production was assessed using HPLC profiles of methanolic cell extracts. A number of correlations were observed between genotypic groupings, as determined using parsimony, and specific metabolite production. Similar correlati ons were also observed with physiological groups although genotypic an alysis proved to be a more sensitive predictor of metabolite variabili ty. The data suggest a complex relationship between environment, genot ype, and metabolite production but highlight the use of genetic screen ing as a means of optimizing the chances of identifying a wide range o f metabolites from a given species. (C) 1996 Academic Press.