Meloidogyne chitwoodi and M-fallax protein variation assessed by two-dimensional electrophoregram computed analysis

The variation of total soluble protein extracts from white adult females of seven Meloidogyne chitwoodi and three M. fallax isolates were studied usin g two dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DGE). The 2-D protein profiles wer e compared with a computed analysis system. A synthetic image or 'master' w as constructed from proteinic spots present in each isolate. The comparison of the two species allowed detection of qualitative and, to a lesser exten t, quantitative variations. Among the 243 proteinic spots present on the ma ster, we have identified 75 monomorphic spots for both species and nine dis criminative proteins for each of the two species. In addition, two isoelect ric point variants and two quantitative variants were observed. The similar ity index and the genetic distances between the ten isolates were calculate d on the basis of homologous polymorphic spots. Dendrograms were constructe d according to the UPGMA method. Significance of the results from the phene tic study was assessed by bootstrap analysis. The results from the clusteri ng analysis allowed differentiation between both species and showed intrasp ecific variation among the M. chitwoodi isolates equal to that among the M. fallax isolates.