• Plant Disease and Agriculture
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.105-110
• /
• 1999

Bacterial leaf spot by Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria has been known to cause serious problem in red pepper in Korea. However recent survey showed that most smptoms in the leaves were mixed with two different symptoms one was leaf spot and the other was canker. bacteria isolated from canker were identified as Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis on the basis of biochemical and physiological characteristics. The causal bacteria were non-motile rod-shaped and Gram-positive. The lesions on pepper leaves appeared at first as small blisters or pimple-like white spots which enlarged in size at a later stage. The centers of some of the spots became necrotic and brown and were surrounded by a white halo. Pathogenicity tests were performed on pepper cv. Alchan seedling by spraying of bacterial suspension. During 1997 and 1998 total 17% of 527 fields surveyed were infected by C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis. The canker of red pepper caused by C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis was first identified in this study in Korea, and new name "gueyangbyung" was tentatively given to the disease.

• Research in Plant Disease
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.290-293
• /
• 2010

Bacterial canker, caused by Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis, is a very damaging disease to tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) farm in Korea. It infects tomato, spreads through the xylem and causes bacterial wilt and canker. Selection of resistant cultivar is the best way to prevent or reduce the occurrence of the disease. Thirty-nine tomato cultivars, twenty-one cherry tomato cultivars and thirteen rootstock tomato cultivars were inoculated with Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis, to evaluate tomato cultivarspecific resistance against bacterial canker. In the evaluation of 73 major commercial cultivars, 'Sunmyung', 'Sweet', 'Akiko', 'Dadaki', 'Match', 'Magnet', 'Friend', and 'Greenpower' were found to have a high level of resistance to bacterial canker of tomatoes.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.245-253
• /
• 2014

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small but effective cationic peptides with variable length. In previous study, four hexapeptides were identified that showed antimicrobial activities against various phytopathogenic bacteria. KCM21, the most effective antimicrobial peptide, was selected for further analysis to understand its modes of action by monitoring inhibitory effects of various cations, time-dependent antimicrobial kinetics, and observing cell disruption by electron microscopy. The effects of KCM21 on Gram-negative strain, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 and Gram-positive strain, Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis were compared. Treatment with divalent cations such as $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ inhibited the bactericidal activities of KCM21 significantly against P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000. The bactericidal kinetic study showed that KCM21 killed both bacteria rapidly and the process was faster against C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis. The electron microscopic analysis revealed that KCM21 induced the formation of micelles and blebs on the surface of P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000 cells, while it caused cell rupture against C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis cells. The outer membrane alteration and higher sensitivity to $Ca^{2+}$ suggest that KCM21 interact with the outer membrane of P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000 cells during the process of killing, but not with C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis cells that lack outer membrane. Considering that both strains had similar sensitivity to KCM21 in LB medium, outer membrane could not be the main target of KCM21, instead common compartments such as cytoplasmic membrane or internal macromolecules might be a possible target(s) of KCM21.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.123-131
• /
• 2015

Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus (Cms) multiplies very rapidly, passing through the vascular strands and into the stems and petioles of a diseased potato. Therefore, the rapid and specific detection of this pathogen is highly important for the effective control of the pathogen. Although several PCR assays have been developed for detection, they cannot afford specific detection of Cms. Therefore, in this study, a computational genome analysis was performed to compare the sequenced genomes of the C. michiganensis subspecies and to identify an appropriate gene for the development of a subspecies-specific PCR primer set (Cms89F/R). The specificity of the primer set based on the putative phage-related protein was evaluated using genomic DNA from seven isolates of Cms and 27 other reference strains. The Cms89F/R primer set was more specific and sensitive than the existing assays in detecting Cms in in vitro using Cms cells and its genomic DNA. This assay was also able to detect at least $1.47{\times}10^2copies/{\mu}l$ of cloned-amplified target DNA, 5 fg of DNA using genomic DNA or $10^{-6}$ dilution point of 0.12 at $OD_{600}$ units of cells per reaction using a calibrated cell suspension.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.104-112
• /
• 2018

Accurate and rapid detection of bacterial plant pathogen is the first step toward disease management and prevention of pathogen spread. Bacterial plant pathogens Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. nebraskensis (Cmn), Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii (Pss), and Rathayibacter tritici (Rt) cause Goss's bacterial wilt and blight of maize, Stewart's wilt of maize and spike blight of wheat and barley, respectively. The bacterial diseases are not globally distributed and not present in Korea. This study adopted comparative genomics approach and aimed to develop specific primer pairs to detect these three bacterial pathogens. Genome comparison among target pathogens and their closely related bacterial species generated 15-20 candidate primer pairs per bacterial pathogen. The primer pairs were assessed by a conventional PCR for specificity against 33 species of Clavibacter, Pantoea, Rathayibacter, Pectobacterium, Curtobacterium. The investigation for specificity and sensitivity of the primer pairs allowed final selection of one or two primer pairs per bacterial pathogens. In our assay condition, a detection limit of Pss and Cmn was $2pg/{\mu}l$ of genomic DNA per PCR reaction, while the detection limit for Rt primers was higher. The selected primers could also detect bacterial cells up to $8.8{\times}10^3cfu$ to $7.84{\times}10^4cfu$ per gram of grain seeds artificially infected with corresponding bacterial pathogens. The primer pairs and PCR assay developed in this study provide an accurate and rapid detection method for three bacterial pathogens of grains, which can be used to investigate bacteria contamination in grain seeds and to ultimately prevent pathogen dissemination over countries.

• Research in Plant Disease
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.168-173
• /
• 2023

Agricultural antibiotics are widely used to inhibit the growth of phytopathogenic bacteria involved in plant diseases. However, continuous antibiotic overuse in crop production may lead to the development of antibiotic resistance in phytopathogenic bacteria. This study was conducted to evaluate the resistance to three different agricultural antibiotics (oxytetracycline+streptomycin, streptomycin, and validamycin A) in 91 strains of phytopathogenic bacteria including Pectobacterium carotovorum, Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae, Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis, C. michiganensis subsp. capsici, and Xanthomonas arboricola pv. pruni. Bacterial growth in the presence of various concentrations of validamycin A was also assessed spectrophotometrically by analyzing the optical density. All strains did not grow when the cells were exposed to oxytetracycline+streptomycin or 100× of streptomycin. However, among the 91 strains, 4% and 2% strains showed bacterial growth at the concentrations of 1× and 10× of streptomycin, respectively. Furthermore, 97%, 93%, and 73% strains were resistant to the 1×, 10×, and 100× of validamycin A, respectively, and especially, P. carotovorum contained the highest resistance to the validamycin A. Minimum bactericidal concentration values of validamycin A did not correlate with the patterns of agricultural antibiotic resistance. Further studies are needed to understand the incidence and development of antibiotic resistance in phytopathogenic bacteria.

• Research in Plant Disease
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.44-51
• /
• 2011

The aim of this study was to develop specific and sensitive PCR-based procedures for simultaneous detection of economically important plant seed infection pathogenic bacteria and virus, Xanthomonns campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv), Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (Cmm), Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora (Ecc), Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) and Tobacco mild green mosaic virus (TMGMV) in pepper and tomato seeds. Most of pepper and tomato bacterial and virus diseases are responsible for germination and growth obstruction. PCR with arbitral primers: selection of specific primers, performance of PCR with specific primers and determination of the threshold level for pathogens detection. To detect simultaneously the Xcv, Cmm, Ecc, PMMoV and TMGMV in pepper and tomato seeds, five pairs (Cmm-F/R, Ecc-F/R, Xcv-F/R, PMMoV-F/R, TMGMV-F/R) of specific primer were synthesized by primer-blast program. The multiplex PCR for the five pathogens in pepper and tomato seeds could detect specially without interference among primers and/or cDNA of plant seeds and other plant pathogens. The PCR result for pathogen detection using 20 commercial pepper and 10 tomato seed samples, Ecc was detected from 4 pepper and 2 tomato seed samples, PMMoV was detected from 1 pepper seed sample, and PMMoV and TMGMV were simultaneously detected from 1 pepper seed sample.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.381-392
• /
• 2018

Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganesis (Cmm) is a quarantine-worthy pest in $M{\acute{e}}xico$. The implementation and validation of new technologies is necessary to reduce the time for bacterial detection in laboratory conditions and Raman spectroscopy is an ambitious technology that has all of the features needed to characterize and identify bacteria. Under controlled conditions a contagion process was induced with Cmm, the disease epidemiology was monitored. Micro-Raman spectroscopy ($532nm\;{\lambda}$ laser) technique was evaluated its performance at assisting on Cmm detection through its characteristic Raman spectrum fingerprint. Our experiment was conducted with tomato plants in a completely randomized block experimental design (13 plants ${\times}$ 4 rows). The Cmm infection was confirmed by 16S rDNA and plants showed symptoms from 48 to 72 h after inoculation, the evolution of the incidence and severity on plant population varied over time and it kept an aggregated spatial pattern. The contagion process reached 79% just 24 days after the epidemic was induced. Micro-Raman spectroscopy proved its speed, efficiency and usefulness as a non-destructive method for the preliminary detection of Cmm. Carotenoid specific bands with wavelengths at 1146 and $1510cm^{-1}$ were the distinguishable markers. Chemometric analyses showed the best performance by the implementation of PCA-LDA supervised classification algorithms applied over Raman spectrum data with 100% of performance in metrics of classifiers (sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, negative and positive predictive value) that allowed us to differentiate Cmm from other endophytic bacteria (Bacillus and Pantoea). The unsupervised KMeans algorithm showed good performance (100, 96, 98, 91 y 100%, respectively).

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.25-32
• /
• 2022

Plant pathogens pose major threats on agriculture and horticulture, causing significant economic loss worldwide. Due to the continuous and excessive use of synthetic pesticides, emergence of pesticide resistant pathogens has become more frequent. Thus, there is a growing needs for environmentally-friendly and selective antimicrobial agents with a novel mode of action, which may be used in combination with conventional pesticides to delay development of pesticide resistance. In this study, we evaluated the potentials of lichen substances as novel biopesticides against eight bacterial and twelve fungal plant pathogens that have historically caused significant phytopathological problems in South Korea. Eight lichen substances of diverse chemical origins were extracted from axenic culture or dried specimen, and further purified for comparative analysis of their antimicrobial properties. Usnic acid and vulpinic acid exhibited strong antibacterial activities against Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis. In addition, usnic acid and vulpinic acid were highly effective in the growth inhibition of fungal pathogens, such as Diaporthe eres, D. actinidiae, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Intriguingly, the growth of Rhizoctonia solani was specifically inhibited by lecanoric acid, indicating that lichen substances exhibit some degrees of selectivity to plant pathogens. These results suggested that lichen substance can be used as a selective biopesticide for controlling plant disease of agricultural and horticultural significance, minimizing possible emergence of pesticide resistant pathogens in fields.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.117-123
• /
• 2012

Pathogenic fungi and bacteria such as Pectobacterium atrosepticum, Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus, Verticillium albo-atrum, and Rhizoctonia solani were the major microorganism which causes diseases in seed potato during postharvest process. Current detection method for disease-infected seed potato relies on human inspection, which is subjective, inaccurate and labor-intensive method. In this study, a reflectance spectroscopy was used to classify sound and disease-infected seed potatoes with the spectral range from 400 to 1100 nm. Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) with various preprocessing methods was used to investigate the feasibility of classification between sound and disease-infected seed potatoes. The classification accuracy was above 97 % for discriminating disease seed potatoes from sound ones. The results show that Vis/NIR reflectance method has good potential for non-destructive sorting for disease-infected seed potatoes.