First Report of Pseudomonas viridiflava Causing a Bacterial Blight of Artichoke Bract Leaves.

In 2006, a disease was observed on two artichoke (Cynara scolymus L. cv. Lardati) fields in Crete, Greece, covering ~2 ha.

Pseudomonas viridiflava, a multi host plant pathogen with significant genetic variation at the molecular level.

The pectinolytic species Pseudomonas viridiflava has a wide host range among plants, causing foliar and stem necrotic lesions and basal stem and root rots. However, little is known about the molecular evolution of this species. In this study we investigated the intraspecies genetic variation of P.