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Genetic characterisation of Pectobacterium wasabiae causing soft rot disease of potato in New Zealand

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Abstract

Pectobacterium wasabiae has a narrow host range, having previously only been associated with Japanese horseradish. However, recent characterisation of Pectobacterium causing soft rotting in New Zealand has identified putative P. wasabiae isolates pathogenic to potato. In this study, phylogenetic reconstruction of acnA and mdh DNA sequences and fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphisms (fAFLP) were used to confirm the identity of the putative P. wasabiae isolates. Both methods clustered the potato isolates closely with the type strain for P. wasabiae, ICMP9121, and also differentiated them from other plant pathogenic enterobacteria. PCR, DNA hybridisation and hypersensitive response (HR) assays were subsequently used to investigate the presence in P. wasabiae of the type III secretion system (T3SS) as well as other virulence factors known to be involved in development of disease by enterobacteria. Although all P. wasabiae strains appeared to elicit a type III-dependent HR in tobacco, genes associated with the T3SS and the putative virulence factors HecB and DspE could not be detected. Thus, genetic characterisation of P. wasabiae confirmed that it is a naturally occurring pathogen on potato, which does not possess the same suite of virulence factors that are involved in the pathogenicity of other enterobacteria on this host.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science & Technology through contract CO2X0501, the Better Border Biosecurity (B3) programme (www.b3nz.org) and by the Tertiary Education Commission. We are grateful to Ian Scott for his helpful advice in the writing of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Private Bag 4704, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Andrew R. Pitman, Sally A. Harrow & Sandra B. Visnovsky

  2. Bioprotection Research Centre, Lincoln University, PO Box 84, Canterbury, New Zealand

    Andrew R. Pitman

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  1. Andrew R. Pitman
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  2. Sally A. Harrow
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  3. Sandra B. Visnovsky
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Correspondence to Andrew R. Pitman.

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Pitman, A.R., Harrow, S.A. & Visnovsky, S.B. Genetic characterisation of Pectobacterium wasabiae causing soft rot disease of potato in New Zealand. Eur J Plant Pathol 126, 423–435 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-009-9551-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-009-9551-y

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