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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Crop Diseases, Pests and Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #303677
Title: Pyrosequencing analyses of endophytic bacterial populations in tomato leaves infected by ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’

Author
item CLARK, NICHOLAS - Fresno State University
item FRIGULTI, TARALEE - Fresno State University
item BUSHOVEN, J - Fresno State University
item ZHENG, ZHENG - South China Agricultural University
item Wallis, Christopher
item Chen, Jianchi

Submitted to: American Phytopathological Society Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/9/2014
Publication Date: 11/1/2014
Citation: Clark, N., Frigulti, T., Bushoven, J., Zheng, Z., Wallis, C.M., Chen, J. 2014. Pyrosequencing analyses of endophytic bacterial populations in tomato leaves infected by ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’. American Phytopathological Society Abstracts. 104(S3):27.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ (CLso) is associated with zebra Chip (ZC) disease of potato. The bacterium is currently not culturable and commonly maintained in plant hosts for characterization. In this study, CLso was graft-transmitted to tomato plants. A maximum of over 200-fold increase in CLso titer was obtained by maintaining excised tomato leaves in potting soil for 28 days under greenhouse conditions. Metabolism changes in tomato leaves were also monitored. Preliminary results revealed sucrose levels were over 60% greater in leaves at day 28 than when initially moved into potting soil. DNA was extracted from CLso-enriched tomato leaves and subjected to pyrosequencing. A total of 100,867 sequence reads averaging 419 bp each was generated. BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) analyses, using 43 selected whole genome sequences covering all major categories of prokaryotes in GenBank database as queries, revealed that bacterial sequences similar to CLso, Pseudomonas putida, and Streptomyces davawensis were highly abundant. PCR experiments further confirmed simultaneous co-enrichment of these bacteria. This is the first observation on the association of Pseudomonas-like and Streptomyces-like bacteria with CLso titer increase in tomato plants.