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Morphological and genotypic features of Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis populations from walnut groves in Romagna region, Italy

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Abstract

Seventy-seven Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis isolates, originating from a small region (Romagna, Italy) within 4 years, were phenotypically typed, in order to study their population features. Assessment of phenotypes resulted in the identification of three different groups of morphotypes, in the assessment of different virulence on walnut fruitlets, and in the evidence that all isolates were able to grow on Mannitol-glutamate-yeast agar containing 50 ppm of copper sulphate. Moreover, several isolates showed to be highly copper resistant in vitro, up to 500 ppm. Forty-one isolates, selected considering year/origin of plant material and phenotypic features, were molecularly studied by rep-PCR fingerprinting using BOXA1R primer. These strains showed a clear intra-pathovar variation by the presence of eight different haplotypes. Twenty isolates, representative of different BOX profile, were studied by means of variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) on the locus TR5b. Such analysis highlighted five different sequence types. Eight polymorphic strains on this flanking region isolated in between 2007 and 20 and one isolated in 2010 were subject to multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) using atpD, dnaK, efP, fyuA, glnA, gyrB, and rpoD housekeeping genes. A diversity level in Italian isolates was highlighted in the same range as in reference strains from a worldwide origin. Finally, the gene cluster copLAB presence was confirmed for all isolates. In this study, the high phenotype and genotype variability inside Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis, was explained by the different origin of the propagation material. Information provided in this study on an Italian Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis collection allows a better understanding of the walnut bacterial blight epidemiology.

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Acknowledgments

The research was conducted in the Framework of the EU-COST 873 action “Bacterial disease of stone fruits and nuts”. This research was supported in part by Centro Ricerche Produzioni Vegetali (CRPV), Cesena, Italy, under the project “SAT Frutticole e Vite, Azione 16 - Batteriosi del noce” and by New Factor spa, Cerasuolo Ausa (RN), Italy. We wish to thank S. Cesbron (INRA, Beaucouzé Cedex, France) for her valuable help and technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Amendola 2, 42122, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    Davide Giovanardi & Emilio Stefani

  2. INRA, UMR 1345 Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences, 42 rue Georges Morel, 49071, Beaucouzé Cedex, France

    Sophie Bonneau, Sophie Gironde & Marion Fischer-Le Saux

  3. ANSES, Laboratoire de la Santé des Végétaux, 7 rue Jean Dixméras, 49044, Angers Cedex 01, France

    Charles Manceau

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  1. Davide Giovanardi
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  2. Sophie Bonneau
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Correspondence to Davide Giovanardi.

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Giovanardi, D., Bonneau, S., Gironde, S. et al. Morphological and genotypic features of Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis populations from walnut groves in Romagna region, Italy. Eur J Plant Pathol 145, 1–16 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-015-0809-2

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