Aydın Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi, Koçarlı Meslek Yüksekokulu, Bitkisel ve Hayvansal Üretim Bölümü, Organik Tarım Programı, Aydın
Abstract
In Aydın province, where cotton has been cultivated for many years, plant wilting caused by Verticillium dahliae, a soil-borne fungus, is causing significant yield losses. While the use of resistant cotton varieties has been prominent in the control of this pathogen, the emergence of new races that break resistance makes controlling this disease even more difficult today. Race 2, assumed to have emerged later as a result of evolution, is currently known as the most aggressive and widespread race of V. dahliae. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and pathogenic characteristics of V. dahliae race 2 in cotton fields of Aydın province. For this purpose, race identification of 118 V. dahliae isolates collected from cotton fields in Aydın province was determined at the molecular level by PCR using specific primer sets. As a result of the test, 109 of the 118 isolates were identified as race 2, and 3 as race 1. The 6 isolates that did not yield amplicons in the PCR were included in the unidentified group. Race 2 was found in all 25 fields sampled (100%), while race 1 was found in only 2 fields (8%). Virulence tests performed on susceptible ‘SC2121’ and resistant ‘Climbo’ tomato varieties yielded differentiating reactions for race 1 and race 2 isolates, confirming the validity of the PCR race identification. In cotton, virulence tests showed high levels of disease severity and leaf defoliation caused by race 2 isolates. Race 1 isolates were in the group with the lowest virulence. The results of this study highlight the need to re-test the resistance of cotton varieties produced in Aydın province against race 2.
Keywords
Verticillium wilt,cotton,race 2,tomato,PCR
How to Cite
GEÇİOĞLU ERİNCİK , B. (2026). Determination of the Races of Verticillium dahliae Isolates Obtained From Cotton Fields in Aydın Province. ISPEC Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 10(2), 589–601. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20281185
📄Ahmad, S., Hasanuzzaman, M., 2020. Cotton production and uses. Agronomy, Crop Protection, and Postharvest Technologies, 1-7.
📄Akar, H., Cat, A., Catal, M., 2024. Molecular characterizations of Verticillium dahliae isolates from grafted tomatoes grown in Antalya province of Türkiye. Journal of Phytopathology, 172: e13262.
📄Bejarano‐Alcazar, J., Blanco‐López, M.A., Melero‐Vara, J.M., Jimenez‐Diaz, R.M., 1997. The influence of Verticillium wilt epidemics on cotton yield in southern Spain. Plant Pathology, 46(2): 168-178.
📄Chavarro-Carrero, E.A., Vermeulen, J.P.T.D.E., Usami, T, Schouten, H.J., Bai, Y., Seidl, M.F., Thomma, B., 2021. Comparative genomics reveals the in planta-secreted Verticillium dahliae AV2 effector protein recognized in tomato plants that carry the V2 resistance locus. Environmental Microbiology, 23:1941-1958.
📄De Jonge, R., Van Esse, H.P., Maruthachalam, K., Bolton, M.D., Santhanam, P., Saber, M.K., Zhang, Z., Usami, T., Lievens, B., Subbarao, K.V., Thomma, B. P., 2012. Tomato immune receptor Ve1 recognizes effector of multiple fungal pathogens uncovered by genome and RNA sequencing. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109: 5110-5115.
📄Dinler, H., Benlioğlu, S., 2013. Vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) of Verticillium dahliae Kleb. isolates obtained from the cotton growing areas of Aydın province. Plant Protection Bulletin, 53(2): 85-99.
📄Dobinson, K.F., Tenuta, G.K., Lazarovits, G., 1996. Occurrence of race 2 of Verticillium dahliae in processing tomato fields in southwestern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology, 18(1): 55-58.
📄Erdogan, O., Sezener, V., Ozbek, N., Bozbek, T., Yavas, I., Unay, A., 2006. The effects of verticillium wilt (Verticillium dahliae Kleb.) on cotton yield and fiber quality. Asian Journal of Plant Sciences, 5: 867–870.
📄Erincik, B.G., 2020. Mating types of Verticillium dahliae isolates from cotton in Aydın Province/Turkey. Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection, 127(5): 677-681.
📄Erwin, D.C., Tsoti, S.D., Khan, R.A., 1976. Reduction of severity of Verticillium wilt of cotton by the growth retardant tributyl (5-chloro-2-thienyl methyl) phosphonium chloride. Pytopathology 66: 106-110.
📄Flor, H.H., 1971.Current status of the gene-for-gene concept. Annual review of Phytopathology, 9(1): 275-296.
📄Fradin, E.F., Thomma, B.P., 2006. Physiology and molecular aspects of Verticillium wilt diseases caused by V. dahliae and V. albo-atrum. Molecular Plant Pathology, 7(2): 71-86.
📄Genç Kesimci, T., 2024. Determination and pathogenicity of Verticillium dahliae isolates obtained from tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in the Iğdır province. Journal of Agricultural Production, 5(2): 81-90.
📄Holman, S., Kirkby, K., Smith, L., Hatnett, H., 2016. Fact Sheet-Vert Update: The latest in vert research in Cotton Info (ed.). Cotton Info, 1-5.
📄Hu, X.P., Gurung, S., Short, D.P.G., Sandoya, G.V., Shang, W.J., Hayes, R.J., Davis, R.M., Subbarao, K.V., 2015. Nondefoliating and defoliating strains from cotton correlate with races 1 and 2 of Verticillium dahliae. Plant Disease, 99(12): 1713-1720.
📄Kawchuk, L.M., Hachey, J., Lynch, D.R., Kulcsar, F., van Rooijen, G., Waterer, D.R., Robertson, A., Kokko, E., Byers, R., Howard, R.J., Fischer, R., Prüfer, D., 2001. Tomato ve disease resistance genes encode cell surface-like receptors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(11): 6511-6515.
📄Kirkpatrick, T.L., Rockroth, C., 2001. Compendium of cotton diseases. American Phytopathological Society (APS Press), 1-77.
📄Lawrence, K., Hagan, A., Norton, R., Hu, J., Faske, T., Hutmacher, R., Muller, J., Small, I., Grabau, Z., Kemerait, R., 2016. Cotton disease loss estimate committee report, 2015. In Proceedings of the 2016 Beltwide Cotton Conference, 113–115.
📄Le, D. P., Trapero, C., Nguyen, C.P., Tran, T. T., Gardiner, D., Chen, A., 2026. Verticillium wilt of cotton: Identification and detection of the causal pathogen and its control. Plants, 15(2): 239-269.
📄Ligoxigakis, E.K., Markakis, E.A., 2012. Incidence and pathogenicity of races and isolates of Verticillium dahliae in Crete, southern Greece. Phytoparasitica, 40(5): 493-506.
📄Mandal, M.K., Koike, S.T., Tsuchida, C., Stanghellini, H., Guerrero, J., Sandoya, G.V., Subbarao, K.V., 2024. Distribution of three Verticillium dahliae races in coastal California and evaluation of resistance in lettuce. Plant Disease, 108(7): 2170-2180.
📄Martín-Sanz, A., Rueda, S., García-Carneros, A.B., González-Fernández, S., Miranda-Fuentes, P., Castuera-Santacruz, S., Molinero-Ruiz, L., 2018. Genetics, host range, and molecular and pathogenic characterization of Verticillium dahliae from sunflower reveal two differentiated groups in Europe. Frontiers in Plant Science, 9: 288-301.
📄Milgroom, M.G., Sotirovski, K., Spica, D., Davis, J.E., Brewer, M.T., Milev, M., 2008. Clonal population structure of the chestnut blight fungus in expanding ranges in southeastern Europe. Molecular Ecology, 17(20): 4446–4458.
📄Nayak, S., Anchieta, A.G., Richardson, K.L., Klosterman, S.J., 2026. Verticillium species-and race-specific pcr reveal a predominance of V. dahliae race 3 in spinach seed lots. PhytoFrontiers. 1-40.
📄Palanga, K.K., Liu, R., Ge, Q., Gong, J., Li, J., Lu, Q., Gong, W., 2021. Current advances in pathogen-plant interaction between Verticillium dahliae and cotton provide new insight in the disease management. Journal of Cotton Research, 4(1): 25-38.
📄Pullman, G.S., DeVay, J.E., 1982. Epidemiology of Verticillium wilt of cotton: Effects of disease development on plant phenology and lint yield. Phytopathology, 72(5): 554-559.
📄Sakr, N., 2023. Durable genetic plant resistance: A key to sustainable pathogen management. The Open Agriculture Journal, 17(1):1-2.
📄Short, D.P.G., Gurung, S., Maruthachalam, K., Atallah, Z.K., Subbarao, K.V., 2014. Verticillium dahliae race 2-specific PCR reveals a high frequency of race 2 strains in commercial spinach seed lots and delineates race structure. Phytopathology, 104: 779-785.
📄Short, D.P., Gurung, S., Gladieux, P., Inderbitzin, P., Atallah, Z.K., Nigro, F., Li, G., Benlioglu, S., Subbarao, K.V., 2015. Globally invading populations of the fungal plant pathogen Verticillium dahliae are dominated by multiple divergent lineages. Environmental Microbiology, 17(8): 2824-2840.
📄Song, Y., Liu, L., Wang, Y., Valkenburg, D.J., Zhang, X., Zhu, L., Thomma, B.P.H.J., 2018. Transfer of tomato immune receptor Ve1 confers Ave1-dependent Verticillium resistance in tobacco and cotton. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 16(2): 638-648.
📄Suaste-Dzul, A.P., Costa, H., Fonseca, M.E.N., Boiteux, L.S., Reis, A., 2023. Mating types and physiological races of Verticillium dahliae in solanaceae crops in Brazil. European Journal of Plant Pathology, 165(1): 139-152.
📄Tan, Q., Li, R., Liu, L., Wang, D., Dai, X.F., Song, L.M., Zhang, D.D., Kong, Z.Q., Klosterman, S.J., Usami, T., Subbarao, K.V., Liang, W.X., Chen, J.Y., 2023. Functional characterization of Verticillium dahliae race 3-specific gene VdR3e in virulence and elicitation of plant immune responses. Microbiology Spectrum, 11(4): 1-17.
📄Townsend, G. R., Heuberger, J. W., 1943. Methods for estimating losses caused by diseases in fungicide experi ments. The Plant Disease Reporter, 27: 340-343.
📄Usami, T., Momma, N., Kikuchi, S., Watanabe, H., Hayashi, A., Mizukawa, M., Yoshino, K., Ohmori, Y., 2017. Race 2 of Verticillium dahliae infecting tomato in Japan can be split into two races with differential pathogenicity on resistant rootstocks. Plant Pathology. 66: 230‐238.
📄Wang, Y., Liang, C., Wu, S., Zhang, X., Tang, J., Jian, G., Jiao, G., Li, F., Chu, C., 2016. Significant improvement of cotton Verticillium wilt resistance by manipulating the expression of Gastrodia antifungal proteins. Molecular Plant, 9: 1436–1439.
📄Wheeler, T.A., Bordovsky, J.P., Keeling, J.W., 2019. The effectiveness of crop rotation on management of Verticillium wilt over time. Crop Protection, 121: 157-162.
📄Yildiz, A., Doğan, M.N., Boz, Ö., Benlioğlu, S., 2009. Weed hosts of Verticillium dahliae in cotton fields in Turkey and characterization of V. dahliae isolates from weeds. Phytoparasitica, 37(2): 171-178.
📄Zhang, J., Jiamahate, A., Feng, H., Bozorov, T.A., Zhang, D., Guo, J., Yang, H., Zhang, D., 2024. Distribution and pathogenicity differentiation of physiological races of Verticillium dahliae from cotton stems in Western China. Pathogens, 13(7): 525-539.
📄Zhang, Y., Zhao, L., Li, D., 2025. A comprehensive review on elucidating the host disease resistance mechanism from the perspective of the interaction between cotton and Verticillium dahliae. Journal of Cotton Research, 8(5): 1-14.
📄Zhu, Y., Zhao, M., Li, T., Wang, L., Liao, C., Liu, D., Zhang, H., Zhao, Y., Liu, L., Ge, X., Li, B., 2023. Interactions between Verticillium dahliae and cotton: pathogenic mechanism and cotton resistance mechanism to Verticillium wilt. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14: 1174281.
