First Report of Soft Rot by Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense on Amaranth in Korea

Amaranth has the potential for good materials related to nutrients and health benefits. There are several diseases of amaranth such as leaf blight, damping-off, and root rot. As a causal agent of soft rot disease, Pectobacterium spp. could infect various plant species. In this study, we isolated the bacterial pathogen causing soft rot of amaranth in South Korea. In Gangneung, Gangwon province during 2017, amaranth plants showed typical soft rot symptoms such as wilting, defoliation and odd smell. To isolate pathogen, the macerated tissues of contaminated amaranth were spread onto LB agar plates and purified by a single colony subculture. One ml bacterial suspension of a representative isolate was injected to the stem of five seedlings of 2-week-old amaranth with a needle. Ten mM magnesium sulfate solution was used as a negative control. 16S rDNA gene and recA gene were sequenced and compared with the reference sequences using the BLAST. In the phylogenetic tree based on 16S rDNA gene and recA gene, GSA1 strain was grouped in Pcb.