ELECTRONIC TONGUE AND BOX-PCR FOR CATEGORIZATION OF DIFFERENT Fusarium STRAINS

Characterizing of microorganism is a very critical task in numerous science applications and different life aspects, several traditional methods are used for this purpose. However, they are costly and time-consuming. To overcome this challenge, there are newly, advanced and alternative methods for fast and accurate fungal monitoring and categorization. This study aims to identify the possibility of using BOX-PCR and an electronic tongue (ET) for illustrating fungal strains of the same species (Fusarium oxysporum .f. sp. niveum). For this purpose, eight Fusarium samples were isolated from soil-grown with watermelon originally from the same geographic regions, then cultured and their DNA was extracted for being monitored. The dendrogram of BOX-PRC showed that it was possible to distinguish different Fusarium strains using a single primer. Moreover, the same native samples were grown on suitable broth media and their broths were analyzed by ET, in which the analyzed ET signals using principal component analysis (PCA), was also able to classify Fusarium samples at the strain level. Both methods showed a compatible trend of classification. The results suggest the possible use of either ET or BOX- PCR as new tools for accurate and relatively fast classification of microorganisms at very specific levels.