PHENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC DIVERSITY OF PECTOLYTIC ERWINIAS ISOLATED FROM ORNAMENTAL HOSTS IN SOME NORTHERN PARTS OF IRAN

Document Type : Research Article

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Abstract

A wide range of pectolytic bacteria inflict damages in ornamental plants. Accurate identification and determination phenotypic and genotypic variation in populations of these bacteria are necessary to implement effective control methods. Thirty-eight isolates of leaf and fleshy parts of ornamental plants from different greenhouses in Guilan, Golestan, East of Mazandaran and Mashhad were collected. The phenotypic features, electrophoretic pattern of cell proteins and DNA fingerprints of the isolates were studied. According to the differential phenotypic characteristics, the isolates were assigned to Pectobacterium, Dickeya and Intermediate species. In numerical analysis of biochemical and physiological features, the isolates were divided to 12 groups. The cell protein pattern of the isolates was diverse and was only useful for preliminary grouping of the isolates. Genomic DNA fragments of representative isolates and eleven references strains were amplified with ERIC, BOX and REP primers. According to the combined dendrogram of the rep-PCR electrophorograms, the isolates were clustered to several groups at a low level of similarity to the reference strains. It seems that rep-PCR is not a useful approach for differentiation of pectolytic erwinias at species or subspecies levels.

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