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Biological Characteristics and Phylogeny of Sphingomonad Strains Associated with Citrus Trees in Northern Iran

  • AGRICULTURAL SOIL SCIENCE AND AGROECOLOGY
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Russian Agricultural Sciences Aims and scope

Abstract

Sphingomonads are becoming increasingly widespread in diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments including the phylosphere and rhizosphere of plants, among which a few have emerged as plant pathogens. The taxonomic status and some biological characteristics of the sphingomonads existing as epiphyte on citrus trees were investigated in the present study. Among the 16 phenogroups, tentatively identified as sphingomonad, nine groups were identified as Sphingomonas, Sphingobium and Novosphingobium strains judged from their 16S rDNA sequences. Four out of the nine groups of strains were identified as Sphingomonas melonis, among which a representative strain was used along with the representatives of the other five groups in MLSA phylogeny employing the housekeeping genes atpD, dnaK, gap, recA, and rpoB. Based on the results of the phylogenies inferred from sequences of concatenated data set, strains of four groups belonged to the genus Sphingomonas, with the ones identified as S. melonis confirmed as such, and the strains of the remaining two groups each were member of Sphingobium and Novosphingobium. The epiphytic existence of S. melonis strains which were able to incite brown spot melon on citrus trees warrants further investigation. All of the strains produced a hypersensitive reaction in geranium and some possessed ice nucleation activity. Further studies are needed to resolve taxonomic status of the unidentified species and to unravel additional biological features of the sphingomonad strains.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank Mrs. Zahra Nikravesh for her excellent assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Protection, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran

    Seyed Zahra Valedsaravi, Heshmat Rahimian & Valiollah Babaeizad

  2. Department of Basic Science, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran

    Ali Barzegar

  3. Genetics and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute of Tabarestan, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Tabarestan, Iran

    Ali Dehestani

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  1. Seyed Zahra Valedsaravi
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  2. Heshmat Rahimian
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Correspondence to Heshmat Rahimian.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This article does not contain any studies involving animals or human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Seyed Zahra Valedsaravi, Rahimian, H., Babaeizad, V. et al. Biological Characteristics and Phylogeny of Sphingomonad Strains Associated with Citrus Trees in Northern Iran. Russ. Agricult. Sci. 47, 606–613 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1068367421060161

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S1068367421060161

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