First Report of Necrotic Disease Caused by Pantoea agglomerans on Plum (Prunus salicina) in China

HomePlant DiseaseVol. 104, No. 4First Report of Necrotic Disease Caused by Pantoea agglomerans on Plum (Prunus salicina) in China PreviousNext DISEASE NOTES OPENOpen Access licenseFirst Report of Necrotic Disease Caused by Pantoea agglomerans on Plum (Prunus salicina) in ChinaChaohui Li, Yifan Jia, Yun Tian, Lan Zhou, Weibo Sun, Jialin Deng, and Fengquan LiuChaohui Lihttp://orcid.org/0000-0001-7893-9665Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Ministry of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, Yifan JiaInstitute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Ministry of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, Yun TianHorticulture Research Institute, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610066, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, Lan ZhouAcademy of Agricultural Sciences of Yanbian, Longjing 133400, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, Weibo SunInstitute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Ministry of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, Jialin DengHorticulture Research Institute, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610066, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author, and Fengquan Liu†Corresponding author: F. Liu; E-mail Address: fqliu20011@sina.comhttp://orcid.org/0000-0001-9325-1500Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Ministry of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, ChinaSearch for more papers by this author AffiliationsAuthors and Affiliations Chaohui Li1 Yifan Jia1 Yun Tian2 Lan Zhou3 Weibo Sun1 Jialin Deng2 Fengquan Liu1 † 1Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Ministry of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China 2Horticulture Research Institute, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610066, China 3Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Yanbian, Longjing 133400, China Published Online:29 Jan 2020https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-10-19-2131-PDNAboutSectionsSupplemental ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailWechat Prunus salicina L., commonly called Chinese plum or Japanese plum, is a small deciduous tree native to China and widely distributed in the world. Since spring of 2018, an unknown disease has affected commercial plums grown in an orchard located in Dazhou, Sichuan Province, China (31°40′41″N, 107°43′57″E). Disease symptoms in plum trees include water-soaked lesions on immature fruits, brown necrotic spots, and holes with a yellow halo in leaves, as well as dark brown oily cankers on twigs. To isolate the causal agent, surface-disinfested tissues from three separate symptomatic fruits, leaves, and twigs were placed onto nutrient agar (NA) plates and were incubated at 28°C. Pale yellow colonies with smooth margins and mucoid texture appeared after 12 h of incubation. Individual colonies were transferred two times to NA plates using the conventional streak plate techniques to obtain pure cultures. Purified bacteria cells were rod shaped, 1.5 to 3.0 μm long, and 0.5 to 1.0 μm wide. Three isolates (named CdjP1, CdjP2, and CdjP3) were used for further characterization. Biochemical tests using Gram stain, MacConkey agar, and Kovacs’s indole kit (Solarbio, Beijing, China) indicated that the three isolates were gram negative, lactose positive, and indole negative. The 16s rDNA fragment was amplified for the three strains using universal primers 27F and 1492R (Lane 1991) and sequenced (GenBank accession nos. MN542182, MN542183, and MN542184). BLASTn analysis revealed the nearly full-length (about 1,400 bp) 16S rDNA sequences of CdjP1, CdjP2, and CdjP3 shared over 99% identity with Pantoea agglomerans (MH101508) (identities 1,400/1,406, 1,407/1,412, 1,405/1,413), P. vagans (CP038853) (identities 1,397/1,406, 1,403/1,412, 1,402/1,414), and P. ananatis (KC178592) (identities 1,399/1,406, 1,405/1,412, 1,404/1,414), respectively. Multilocus sequence analysis has been shown to be a powerful molecular method for delineation of Pantoea species (Deletoile et al. 2009; Tambong et al. 2014). To identify the species of CdjP1, CdjP2, and CdjP3, six housekeeping genes (fusA, gyrB, leuS, pyrG, rlpB, and rpoB) of each strain were amplified and sequenced (GenBank accession nos. MN549363 to MN549380). Then a phylogenetic tree was constructed using Bayes inference methods based on fusA-gyrB-leuS-pyrG-rlpB-rpoB concatenated fragments (2,997 bp), which showed that CdjP1, CdjP2, and CdjP3 are most closely related to P. agglomerans. To fulfill Koch’s postulates, pathogenicity tests were conducted on 3-year-old plum trees (cv. Qinba) grown in Sichuan Province, China (31°40′53″N, 107°44′2″E). Immature plum fruits, leaves, and twigs were wounded with a sterile toothpick and were inoculated with 20 µl of bacterial suspension (108 CFU/ml) of each isolate. Plants inoculated with sterile water were used as a control. All treatments and the control were repeated three times. The trees were then grown under natural conditions (monthly mean maximum temperature 32°C, monthly mean minimum temperature 23°C). After 2 weeks, all test-isolate-inoculated plum fruits, leaves, and twigs developed symptoms similar to those of the natural infections observed. No lesions were observed on the controls. Bacteria reisolated from the infected plum fruits, leaves, and twigs were similar in colony appearance to the original isolates, and the 16s rDNA fragments were identical to their original isolate sequences, thereby fulfilling Koch’s postulates. Based on colony morphology, biochemical tests, 16S rRNA gene sequencing data, and phylogenetic analysis, the pathogen was identified as P. agglomerans. In China, P. agglomerans has been reported to infect cotton, walnut, Vigna angularis, and Ziziphus jujuba (Lu et al. 2015; Ren et al. 2008; She et al. 2019; Yang et al. 2011). To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. agglomerans causing bacterial necrosis of plum in China or worldwide. This report expands the host range of P. agglomerans and will help to develop effective disease control strategies, as the etiology is known.The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.References:Deletoile, A., et al. 2009. J. Clin. Microbiol. 47:300. https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01916-08 Crossref, ISI, Google ScholarLane, D. J. 1991. Page 115 in: Nucleic Acid Techniques in Bacterial Systematics. Wiley, New York, NY. Google ScholarLu, B. H., et al. 2015. Plant Dis. 99:1269. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-02-15-0188-PDN Link, ISI, Google ScholarRen, Y. Z., et al. 2008. Plant Dis. 92:1364. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-92-9-1364B Link, ISI, Google ScholarShe, X. M., et al. 2019. Plant Dis. 103:1405. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-01-19-0025-PDN Link, Google ScholarTambong, J. T., et al. 2014. Evol. Bioinform. Online 10:115. https://doi.org/10.4137/EBO.S15738 Crossref, ISI, Google ScholarYang, K. Q., et al. 2011. Plant Dis. 95:773. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-01-11-0060 Link, ISI, Google ScholarC. Li and Y. Jia contributed equally to this work.The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Jiangsu Provincial Key Technology Support Program (BE2018389), the Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS-28-16), and National Key Research and Development Program (2018YFD0201400).DetailsFiguresLiterature CitedRelated Vol. 104, No. 4 April 2020SubscribeISSN:0191-2917e-ISSN:1943-7692 DownloadCaptionDisease symptoms of leaves of the peach cultivar Royal Bell caused by Xanthomonas arboricola pv. pruni (R. Iličić and T. Popović). Photo credit: R. Iličić. Symptoms of chilli yellow ringspot virus on a chilli pepper plant (K. Y. Zheng et al.). Photo credit: J. H. Dong. Metrics Downloaded 2,371 times Article History Issue Date: 3 Apr 2020Published: 29 Jan 2020First Look: 4 Dec 2019Accepted: 27 Nov 2019 Pages: 1248-1248 Information© 2020 The American Phytopathological SocietyFundingJiangsu Provincial Key Technology Support ProgramGrant/Award Number: BE2018389Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research SystemGrant/Award Number: CARS-28-16National Key Research and Development ProgramGrant/Award Number: 2018YFD0201400Keywordsbacteriaplumcausal agentpathogen detectionPantoeaThe author(s) declare no conflict of interest.Cited ByClarification of the etiology of peach bacteria leaf shot hole caused by Pantoea spp. in Henan Province, China, based on morphological characteristics and multi-locus sequences analysis17 July 2021 | European Journal of Plant Pathology, Vol. 161, No. 2Identification of the Causal Agent of Aqueous Spot Disease of Sweet Cherries (Prunus avium L.) from the Jerte Valley (Cáceres, Spain)26 September 2021 | Foods, Vol. 10, No. 10