iPBS retrotransposons ‘A Universal Retrotransposons’ now in molecular phylogeny of fungal pathogens

• Utility of universal iPBS retrotransposons for taxonomic classification of 16 pathogenic fungi species was investigated.
• Six iPBS primers were very successful for differentiating various fungal species based on their classes and genus.
• Intra- and inter-species genetic diversity were the results of genome plasticity due to jumping elements.
• This marker system has a potential to be used for further genetic studies of fungi with specific objectives.

Methods for the diagnostics and detection of plant pathogens need to be quick, simple, reliable, and cost effective. In the present study, inter-priming binding sites (iPBS)-retrotransposons were used to study the genetic diversity of 96 isolates belonging to 16 different fungal species at intra- and inter-species levels. The 6 iPBS-retrotransposon primers amplified 389 bands, of which 387 were polymorphic (99%) with an average of 64.83 polymorphic fragments per primer. Polymorphism information contents per primers ranged from 0.976 to 0.870 with the average being 0.972. Neighbor-joining analysis differentiated all fungal isolates according to their species, and at the intra-specific level revealed considerable genetic variability among fungal isolates. The data supports the use of iPBS-retrotransposons as ‘a universal marker’ for the molecular characterization of different fungal species. It also suggests that only one or a few iPBS-retrotransposon primers would be sufficient for the discrimination of fungal isolates at both intra- and inter-species levels.