ARS | Publication request: Genomic and Phenotypic Analysis of Pseudomonas spp. Biocontrol Strains

Submitted to: Pseudomonas
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: August 29, 2011
Publication Date: September 4, 2011
Citation: Breakwell, K., Hassan, K., Lim, C., Elbourne, L., Thomashow, L.S., Loper, J.E., Paulsen, I. 2011. Genomic and Phenotypic Analysis of Pseudomonas spp. Biocontrol Strains. Pseudomonas. 2011. 13th International Conference abstract book. Pg. 48.

Technical Abstract: Microbial plant pathogens cost global agricultural industries billions of dollars each year, despite the treatment of crops with chemical pesticides. Certain soil or plant commensal bacteria can serve as biological control organisms that reduce the severity and incidence of plant disease, often through the production of compounds that are antagonistic to plant pathogens. However, the current use of plant biocontrol organisms in agriculture is limited by a lack of understanding regarding how these organisms interact with plant pathogens in the environment. To advance knowledge of biological control organisms and the chemical resources they utilize, we recently sequenced genomes from seven biocontrol strains of Pseudomonas spp. and undertook comparative metabolic reconstructions. We also performed a large-scale comparative phenotypic analysis of all of the sequenced strains using Biolog Phenotype Microarrays. Despite sharing only 50% of their genes across the set of sequenced strains, these pseudomonads showed surprisingly similar metabolic profiles during the phenotypic analysis. However, several strains differed in their ability to metabolise plant derived compounds, such as sucrose and tartaric acid, and these phenotypic differences could be correlated to the presence or absence of specific metabolic genes.