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Infection by a coronatine-producing strain of Pectobacterium cacticidum isolated from sunflower plants in Mexico is characterized by soft rot and chlorosis

  • Bacterial and Phytoplasma Diseases
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Abstract

A novel strain of Pectobacterium, isolated from infected sunflower plants (Helianthus annuus L.) in Mexico was characterized. Inoculated sunflower plants developed both tissue chlorosis and soft-rot on leaves. The broad host range shown by this pathogen, which included members of the Agavaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae and Solanaceae, was characteristic of the genus Pectobacterium. The metabolic profile and molecular data, in addition to the secretion of plant-cell-wall-degrading enzymes, confirmed its identification as a member of the Pectobacterium genus. A phylogenetic tree constructed on the basis of its 16S rDNA sequence revealed a high identity (98 %) with P. cacticidum. Amplification and restriction-fragment-length-polymorphism analysis of internal transcribed sequences further confirmed its classification as P. cacticidum. Similar to strains of P. atrosepticum, P. carotovorum and Dickeya spp., the new P. cacticidum strain FHLGJ22 has a coronafacic ligase gene and produces coronatine, a virulence factor usually associated with phytopathogenic strains of Pseudomonas syringae. Our results suggest that this strain may utilize a dual infection process involving cell maceration and plant toxins, which is synchronized via an unknown mechanism, might confer an adaptive advantage to colonize different plant hosts.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the late Dr. Leopold Fucikovsky (Colegio de Postgraduados en Ciencias Agrícolas, Estado de México, México) and Dr. Miguel Gómez Lim (Cinvestav, Unidad Irapuato, México) for providing the isolates of Pectobacterium. We also thank Dr. Jorge Molina Torres (Cinvestav, Unidad Irapuato, México) for technical support during the coronatine detection and identification by GC–MS assay.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Biotecnología e Ingeniería Genética de Plantas, (Cinvestav, Unidad Irapuato), Km 9.6 del Libramiento Norte Carretera Irapuato-León, Apartado Postal 629, 36821, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Norma Angélica Martínez-Gallardo, Enrique Ramírez-Chávez, Ismael Cisneros Hernández, José Luis Hernández-Flores & John Paul Délano-Frier

  2. División de Biología Molecular, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Camino a la Presa San José 2055, Col. Lomas 4 sección, 78216, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

    Luis David Maldonado-Bonilla

  3. División de Ciencias de la Vida, Departamento de Alimentos, Universidad de Guanajuato, Campus Irapuato-Salamanca, Km 9, Carretera Irapuato-Silao, Col. El Copal, 36500, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Gustavo Hernández-Guzmán

  4. Unidad de Biotecnología Vegetal. Centro de Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco, A.C. (CIATEJ), Avenida Normalistas número 800, Colonia Colinas de la Normal, 44270, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

    Gabriel Rincón-Enríquez

  5. Departamento de Plásticos en la Agricultura, Centro de Investigación en Química Aplicada, Boulevard Enrique Reyna Hermosillo 140, 25294, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

    José Humberto Valenzuela-Soto

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  1. José Humberto Valenzuela-Soto
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  2. Luis David Maldonado-Bonilla
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Correspondence to John Paul Délano-Frier.

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Valenzuela-Soto, J.H., Maldonado-Bonilla, L.D., Hernández-Guzmán, G. et al. Infection by a coronatine-producing strain of Pectobacterium cacticidum isolated from sunflower plants in Mexico is characterized by soft rot and chlorosis. J Gen Plant Pathol 81, 368–381 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10327-015-0606-y

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