• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.21-27
• /
• 1999

Nonpathogenic mutants of Xanthomonas campestris pv. glycines were generated with Omegon-Kim to isolate genes essential for pathogenicity and inducing hypersensitive response (HR). Three nonpathogenic multants and two mutants showing slow symptom development were isolated among 1,000 colonies tested. From two nonpathogenic mutants, 8-13 and 26-13, genes homologous to hrcC and hrpF of X. campestris pv. vesicatoria were identified. The nonpathogenic mutant 8-13 had a mutation in a gene homologous to hrpF of X. campestris pv. vesicatoria and failed to cause HR on pepper plants but still induced HR on tomato leaves. The nonpathogenic mutant 26-13 had an insertional mutation in a gene homologous to hrcC of X. campestris pv. vesicatoria and lost the ability to induce HR on pepper leaves but still caused HR on tomato plants. Unlike other phytopathogenic bacteria, the parent strain and these two mutants of X. campestris pv. glycines did not cause HR on tobacco plants. a cosmid clone, pBL1, that complemented the phenotypes of 8-13 was isolated. From the analysis of restriction enzyme mapping and deletion analyses of pBL1, a 9.0-kb Eco RI fragment restored the phenotypes of 8-13. pBL1 failed to complement the phenotypes of 26-13, indicating that the hrcC gene resides outside of the insert DNA of pBL1. One nonpathogenic mutant, 13-33, had a mutation in a gene homologous to a miaA gene encoding tRNA delta (2)-isopentenylpyrophosphate transferase of Escherichia coli. This indicated that tRNA modifications in X. campestris pv. glycines may be required for expression of genes necessary for pathogenicity. The mutant 13-33 multiplied as well as the parent strain did in the culture medium and in planta, indicating that loss of pathogenicity is not due to the inability of multiplication in vivo.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.77-82
• /
• 2001

Erwinia amylovora causes a devastating disease called fire blight in rosaceous trees and shrubs such as apple, pear, and raspberry. To successfully infect its hosts, the pathogen requires a set of clustered genes termed hrp. Studies on the hrp system of E. amylovora indicated that it consists of three functional classes of genes. Regulation genes including hrpS, hrpS, hrpXY, and hrpL produce proteins that control the expression of other genes in the cluster. Secretion genes, many of which named hrc, encode proteins that may form a transmembrane complex, which is devoted to type III protein secretion. Finally, several genes encode the proteins that are delivered by the protein secretion apparatus. They include harpins, DspE, and other potential effector proteins that may contribute to proliferation of E. amylovora inside the hosts. Harpins are glycine-rich heat-stable elicitors of the hypersensitive response, and induce systemic acquired resistance. The pathogenicity protein DseE is homologous and functionally similar to an avirulence protein of Pseudomonas syringae. The region encompassing the hrpldsp gene cluster of E. amylovora shows features characteristic of a genomic island : a cryptic recombinase/integrase gene and a tRNA gene are present at one end and genes corresponding to those of the Escherichia coli K-12 chromosome are found beyond the region. This island, designated the Hrp pathogenicity island, is more than 60 kilobases in size and carries as many as 60 genes.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2008

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is the causal agent of bacterial blight on rice. In this paper, current status on molecular genetic study of major virulence genes, hypersensitive response and pathogenicity (hrp), productions of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS), extracellular enzymes and lipopolysaccharides (LPS), avr genes were reviewed. The IS elements with 611 copies including 133 ORF IS were inserted in various regions of the Xoo genome and in expecially regions franking virulence genes. Whole genome sequence of X. oryzae pv. oryzae KACC10331 were used for defining genetic organization of the virulence genes. Futhermore, the virulence genes in Xoo genome were compared to those of other Xanthomonas species in Blast GenBank data base.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.30-42
• /
• 2008

The disease-specific (dsp) region and the hypersensitive response and pathogenicity (hrp) genes, including the hrpW, $hrpN_{Ep}$, and hrpC operons have previously been sequenced in Erwinia pyrifoliae WT3 [Shrestha et al. (2005a)]. In this study, the remaining hrp genes, including the hrpC, hrpA, hrpS, hrpXY, hrpL and hrpJ operons, were determined. The hrp genes cluster (ca. 38 kb) was comprised of eight transcriptional units and contained nine hrc (hrp conserved) genes. The genetic organization of the hrp/hrc genes and their orientation for the transcriptions were also similar to and collinear with those of E. amylovora, showing ${\geq}80%$ homologies. However, ORFU1 and ORFU2 of unknown functions, present between the hrpA and hrpS operons of E. amylovora, were absent in E. pyrifoliae. To determine the HR active domains, several proteins were prepared from truncated fragments of the N-terminal and the C-terminal regions of $HrpN_{Ep}$ protein of E. pyrifoliae. The proteins prepared from the N-terminal region elicited HR, but not from those of the C-terminal region indicating that HR active domains are located in only N-terminal region of the $HrpN_{Ep}$ protein. Two synthetic oligopeptides produced HR on tobacco confirming presence of two HR active domains in the $HrpN_{Ep}$. The HR positive N-terminal fragment ($HN{\Delta}C187$) was further narrowed down by deleting C-terminal amino acids and internal amino acids to investigate whether amino acid insertion region have role in faster and stronger HR activity in $HrpN_{Ep}$ than $HrpN_{Ea}$. The $HrpN_{Ep}$ mutant proteins $HN{\Delta}C187$ (D1AIR), $HN{\Delta}C187$ (D2AIR) and $HN{\Delta}C187$ (DM41) retained similar HR activation to that of wild-type $HrpN_{Ep}$. However, the $HrpN_{Ep}$ mutant protein $HN{\Delta}C187$ (D3AIR) lacking third amino acid insertion region (102 to 113 aa) reduced HR when compared to that of wild-type $HrpN_{Ep}$. Reduction in HR elicitation could not be observed when single amino acids at different positions were substituted at third amino acids insertion region. But, substitution of amino acids at L103R, L106K and L110R showed reduction in HR activity on tobacco suggesting their importance in activation of HR faster in the $HrpN_{Ep}$ although it requires further detailed analysis.

• Research in Plant Disease
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.111-120
• /
• 2011

A bacterial artificial chromosome library of Pectobacterium carotovorum 35 was constructed to characterize the genome and to sequence its hrp region. The hrp cluster of P. carotovorum 35 consisted of 26 open reading frames in five operons. A promoter-based green fluorescent protein technology was used to identify the genes regulated by the alternative sigma factor, HrpL, in P. carotovorum 35. The majority of the selected clones contained the hrpJ operon promoter sequence, which harbors a hrp box, but no putative hrp boxes were detected within the promoter sequences of two other hrpL-regulated genes encoding for pectate lyase and large repetitive protein. Although the promoters of five other hrp operons also contained hrp boxes, their expression was not HrpL-dependent in the promoter-based selection in E. coli. However, transcriptional analysis showed that expression from all operons harboring hrp boxes, except for the hrpN operon, was reduced significantly in the hrpL mutant. The severity of soft-rot symptoms when the hrpL mutant was applied to the surface of tobacco leaves, mimicking natural infection, was greatly attenuated. These results indicate that the hrpL gene of P. carotovorum 35 may be involved in the development of soft-rot symptoms.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.18 no.9
• /
• pp.1500-1509
• /
• 2008

The hybridization patterns with the avrBs3 gene that is known to determine the recognition of host specificity were used to study the diversity of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines causing bacterial leaf pustule in soybean. A total of 155 strains were isolated from diverse tissues of soybean cultivars collected in Korea and were classified into six different type strains of OcsF, SL1017, SL1018, SL1045, SL1157, and SL2098 according to the patterns of avrBs3-homologous bands. When these type strains were inoculated on various cultivars, most of the Korean strains mildly induced disease symptoms on the resistant CNS1 cultivars. Unlike other type strains, strain SL2098, which appeared not to contain any avrBs3 homolog, induced only a few pustules on even highly susceptible cultivars. When a plasmid carrying the 3.7-kb avrBs3-homologous gene from strain SL1045 was introduced into SL2098, the transformant could not recover the pathogenicity in susceptible host plants. However, when avrBs3-homologous genes of strain SL1018 were mutated by transposon mutagenesis, one of the mutants in which a 5.2-kb chromosomal band homologous to avrBs3 was disrupted could not induce the hypersensitive response on resistant cultivars such as William82 or CNS2. Our results suggest that the avrBs3 homologs may play important roles in the pathogenicity of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines and the recognition of soybean cultivars.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
• /
• 2004.10a
• /
• pp.65-67
• /
• 2004

During initial interactions of bacteria with their host plants, most plants recognize the bacterial infections and repel the pathogen by plant defense mechanism. The most active plant defense mechanism is the hypersensitive response (HR) which is the localized induced cell death in the plant at the site of infection by a pathogen. A primary locus induced in gram-negative phytopathogenic bacteria during this initial interaction is the Hrp locus. The Hrp locus is composed of a cluster of genes that encodes the bacteral Type 111 machinery that is involved in the secretion and translocation of effector proteins to the plant cell. DNA sequence analysis of hrp gene in phytopathogenic bacteria has revealed a Hrp pathogenicity is]and (PAI) with a tripartite mosaic structure. For many gram-negative pathogenic bacteria, colonization of the host's tissue depends on the type III protein secretion system (TTSS) which secrets and translocates effector proteins into the host cell. Effectors can be divided into several groups including broad host range effectors, host specific effectors, disease specific effectors, and effectors inhibit host defenses. The role of effectors carrying LRR domain in plant resistance is very elusive since most known plant resistance gene carry LRR domain. Host specific effectors such as several avr gene products are involved in the determination of the host specificity. Almost all the phytopathogenic Xanthomonas spp. carry avrBs1, avrBs2, and avrBs3 homologs. Some strains of X. oryzae pv. oryzae carry more than 10 copies of avrBs3 homologs. However, the functions of all those avr genes in host specificity are not characterized well.;