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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Urbana, Illinois » Soybean/maize Germplasm, Pathology, and Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #194253
Title: GENUS PASTEURIA METCHNIKOFF 1888, 166AL EMEND. SAYRE AND STARR 1985, 149, STARR AND SAYRE 1988A, 27 (NON. CONS. OPIN. 61 JUD. COMM. 1986, 199. NOT PASTEURIA IN THE SENSE OF HENRICI AND JOHNSON (1935), HIRSCH (1972), OR STALE

Author
item DICKSON, DONALD - UNIV OF FLORIDA
item PRESTON, JAMES - UNIV OF FLORIDA
item GIBLIN-DAVIS, ROBIN - UNIV OF FLORIDA
item Noel, Gregory
item EBERT, DIETER - UNIV BASEL/SWITZERLAND
item BIRD, GEORGE - MICHIGAN STATE UNIV

Submitted to: Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/2/2008
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The bacterial genus Pasteuria contains five species, one which parasitizes water fleas and four which are parasitic on nematodes. These bacteria cannot be cultured in artificial media, which makes them difficult to study. The nematode infecting species are effective biological control agents, but each species of Pasteuria is highly host specific to one species of nematodes. Because of the importance of nematodes in causing crop loss through out the world, interest is increasing in the use of Pasteuria in biological control in sustainable agriculture and in integrated pest management. The interest of nematologists who work with Pasteuria has resulted in the vast majority of research being done by nematologists who must become proficient in bacteriology, including taxonomy. Since the first chapter on Pasteuria in Bergey’s Manual was published 20 years ago, much has been learned about the taxonomy and host-parasite relationships of Pasteuria spp. and the nematodes they attack. This chapter provides the latest knowledge of Pasteuria and will be the most authoritative compilation of information on this group of bacteria.

Technical Abstract: Pas.teu'ri.a. M.L. gen. n. Pasteuria of Pasteur (named for Louis Pasteur, French savant and scientist). Gram-positive, dichotomously branching, septate mycelium, the terminal hyphae of which enlarge to form sporangia and eventually endospores. Rounded to elliptical-shaped cauliflower-like vegetative microcolonies; daughter colonies are formed by fragmentation. The sporogenous cells at the periphery of the colonies are usually attached by narrow "sacrificial" intercalary hyphae that lyse, causing arrangement of the developing sporangia in quartets, triplets, then in doublets, and finally as single teardrop-shaped or cup-shaped or rhomboidal mature sporangia. The rounded end of the sporangium encloses a single refractile endospore, 1.0-3.0 µm in major dimension, an oblate spheroid, ellipsoidal or almost spherical in shape, resistant to desiccation and elevated temperatures (one species has somewhat limited heat tolerance). Nonmotile. Sporangia and microcolonies are endoparasitic in the bodies of freshwater, plant, and soil invertebrates. Has not been cultivated axenically, but can be grown in the laboratory with its invertebrate host. Type species: Pasteuria ramosa Metchnikoff 1888, 166.