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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Insect Control and Cotton Disease Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #377849
Research Project: Molecular and Genetic Approaches to Manage Cotton Diseases

Location: Insect Control and Cotton Disease Research

Title: Complete genome sequence of Serratia sp. strain CC119 associated with inner cotton boll rot via insect vector transmission

Author
item Medrano, Enrique
item Smith, Timothy - Tim
item Bell, Alois - Al
item BREWER, M - Texas A&M Agrilife
item Glover, James

Submitted to: Microbiology Resource Announcements
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/19/2020
Publication Date: 12/10/2020
Citation: Medrano, E.G., Smith, T.P., Bell, A.A., Brewer, M.J., Glover, J.P. 2020. Complete genome sequence of Serratia sp. strain CC119 associated with inner cotton boll rot via insect vector transmission. Microbiology Resource Announcements. 9(50). https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.01077-20.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.01077-20

Interpretive Summary: In 2000, a previously unobserved inner cotton boll rot caused seed and fiber yield losses that reached 20%. Past work from our lab demonstrated that certain fungi and bacteria are responsible for the boll rot disease and these microbes are vectored by insects that feed using a piercing-sucking mechanism. Although the pathogens vary in species, they have the common ability to infect and produce the boll rot disease. Hence, we hypothesized that the cotton pathogens share a common set of genes involved in producing disease. This report provides the whole genome sequence of an infective bacterium that is associated with boll feeding by the verde plant bug, a prominent pest of cotton in South Texas. Information generated from our study is essential for understanding the boll infection process and for developing a user-friendly system to directly detect the presence of this disease in cotton fields.

Technical Abstract: Serratia species are Gram-negative bacteria consisting of isolates that can infect both animals and plants. The presented annotated genome is the first of a Serratia sp. (called CC119) that is a cotton boll pathogen. The opportunistic strain is associated with the Creontiades signatus that is a boll piercing-sucking insect.