Comparative genomics of pathovar reveals novel chemotaxis pathways associated with motility and plant pathogenicity.

The majority of bacterial foliar plant pathogens must invade the apoplast of host plants through points of ingress, such as stomata or wounds, to replicate to high population density and cause disease. How pathogens navigate plant surfaces to locate invasion sites remains poorly understood. Many bacteria use chemical-directed regulation of flagellar rotation, a process known as chemotaxis, to move towards favorable environmental conditions.

Global analysis of the HrpL regulon in the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 reveals new regulon members with diverse functions.

The type III secretion system (T3SS) is required for virulence in the gram-negative plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. The alternative sigma factor HrpL directly regulates expression of T3SS genes via a promoter sequence, often designated as the "hrp promoter.

Oligonucleotide recombination enabled site-specific mutagenesis in bacteria.

Recombineering refers to a strategy for engineering DNA sequences using a specialized mode of homologous recombination. This technology can be used for rapidly constructing precise changes in bacterial genome sequences in vivo. Oligonucleotide recombination is one type of recombineering that uses ssDNA oligonucleotides to direct chromosomal mutations.

A new shuttle vector for gene expression in biopolymer-producing Ralstonia eutropha.

Ralstonia eutropha (formerly Alcaligenes eutrophus) is a fascinating microorganism with a great scientific importance and an immense commercial potential. A new genetic transformation system for the organism would greatly facilitate the biological study and molecular engineering of this organism. We report here a versatile gene expression method for the genetic engineering of R.

Isolation of novel Pseudomonas syringae promoters and functional characterization in polyhydroxyalkanoate-producing pseudomonads.

A library of genomic DNA fragments of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 was constructed in a lacZalpha-containing plasmid, pBS29. The library was used in a preliminary alpha-complementation-based screen to identify clones with promoter activity in Escherichia coli.