Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification for Rapid Detection of Mating Types of .

Rice false smut (RFS), caused by , is an important fungal disease in panicles of rice. is a heterothallic ascomycete controlled by two opposite idiomorphs, MAT1-1 and MAT1-2. Previous study showed that sexual reproduction of plays an important role in the epidemic of RFS. In this study, we developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay to detect the mating type of easily and rapidly by using specific primers based on the mating type genes and , respectively. The LAMP assay used only a water/dry bath and could recognize the mating type of in just 45 min. The LAMP assay was so sensitive that it could detect small amounts of genomic DNA (as low as 2.0 pg of MAT1-1 and 200.0 pg of MAT1-2) and was 10 times more sensitive than PCR. In addition, we demonstrated the application of mating type via LAMP assay by assessing the genomic DNA of isolated from rice fields. The high efficiency and specificity of this LAMP assay suggest that it can be used as a rapid testing tool in mating type recognition of isolates in the field.