FLUORIDE ACTION NETWORK PESTICIDE PROJECT

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Flutriafol fungicide (Impact®). 1998 article from Australia.

http://128.250.102.141/blackleg/_projects/Fungicideproject/fungicideproject.htm

Fungicide Resistance

Kate Griffiths

Collaborator

Dr Phil Salisbury

Institute for Land and Food Resources, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic 3010

Victorian Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Horsham, Vic 3400

Summary

The azole fungicide flutriafol (Impact¨) is the only fungicide registered to control L. maculans in Australia, where it is applied in-furrow with a fertiliser. In other fungi flutriafol appears to act by binding to 14 a-demethylase, an enzyme in the cytochrome P450 superfamily that catalyses a step in ergosterol biosynthesis. Ergosterol is the main sterol in most fungi, and functions as an architectural membrane component. Resistance to azole fungicides has been observed in other fungal crop pathogens by mechanisms such as intracellular sequestering, increased expression or mutation of 14 a-demethylase, increased efflux through ABC transporter proteins or dual mutation of 14 a-demethylase and D5,6 desaturase, another enzyme in the ergosterol biosynthetic pathway.

I am working towards understanding the mechanism of flutriafol resistance in an Australian L. maculans isolate. To do this I am producing mutants with flutriafol resistance using Restriction Enzyme Mediated Insertional mutagenesis (REMI), UV mutagenesis and selective pressure. I am characterising the sterol profiles of these mutants in the presence and absence of flutriafol using thin-layer chromatography and gas chromatography - mass spectrometry.

Using the L. maculans homologues of genes encoding enzymes implicated in fungicide resistance I will also determine if changes in the expression level or nucleotide sequence of these genes are associated with fungicidal resistance.

Created 10 September 1998
Last modified: 11 November 2000
Copyright © 1998  The University of Melbourne.
Maintainer:Joe Barrins and Alex Idnurm, Blackleg Lab, School of Botany
Maintainer Email Address: j.barrins@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au