Rapid Identification of Potato Scab Causing Streptomyces spp. from Soil Using Pathogenicity Specific Primers

The plant-pathogenic species S. scabies, S. acidiscabies, and S. turgidiscabies cause the scab disease of potato and produce the phytotoxins, thaxtomins. necl, a gene conferring a necrogenic phenotype, is involved in pathogenicity and physically linked to the thaxtomin A biosynthetic genes. Identification of the pathogenic strains of Streptomyces from soil was performed through the polymerase chain reaction by using specific pathogenicity primer sets derived from the necl gene sequences of Streptomyces smbies. The DNA was extracted from soil using a bead-beating machine and modifications of the FastPrep system. The DNA was suitable for direct use in the PCR. The PCR products showed the bands of approximately 460 bp. This methods can be very usuful in identifying species responsible for scab diseases and studying on the ecology of plant-pathogenic Streptomyces spp.