Crown gall is an economically important and widespread plant disease caused by tumorigenic bacteria that are commonly affiliated within the genera , and . Although crown gall disease was reported to occur on rhododendron, literature data regarding this disease are limited. In this study, an atypical group of tumorigenic agrobacteria belonging to the genus was identified as a causative agent of crown gall on rhododendron. Genome analysis suggested that tumorigenic bacteria isolated from rhododendron tumors are most closely related to , a new tumorigenic bacterium discovered recently on blackberry in Serbia. However, and novel rhododendron strains belong to separate species and form a homogenous clade within the genus , which we named the "tumorigenes" clade. Moreover, tumorigenic bacteria isolated from rhododendron seem to carry a distinct tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid, compared with those carried by strains and Ti plasmids described thus far. To facilitate rapid identification of bacteria belonging to the "tumorigenes" clade, regardless of whether they are pathogenic or not, a conventional PCR method targeting putative chromosomal gene-encoding flagellin protein FlaA was developed in this study. Finally, our results suggested that this novel group of tumorigenic agrobacteria occurs on blueberry but it cannot be excluded that it is distributed more widely.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-05-19-0167-R | DOI Listing |
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