Supplemental Material for Ragasa et al., 2024

Copper has been widely used as a main component in fungicides due to its versatility and effectiveness. However, overuse of copper-based fungicides may alter local biodiversity and force the selection of organisms that are tolerant to copper toxicity. These copper-tolerant fungi may proliferate and cause damage to economically important crops. Since the mechanisms of copper tolerance in fungal pathogens remain unclear, there is a need to investigate survival mechanisms of these fungi in high copper. Here, we aim to determine genes related to the high copper tolerance of a Fusarium oxysporum strain isolated from a Solanum nigrum plant growing in a high copper environment. The existence of a copper-tolerant Fusarium species variant raises concerns regarding the ability of Fusarium species to develop an adaptive mechanism to tolerate copper-based fungicides and cause damage to agricultural crops.