Streptomyces hilarionis sp. nov. and Streptomyces hayashii sp. nov., two new strains associated with potato scab in Brazil.

Two new actinobacteria, designated strains IBSBF 2807T and IBSBF 2953T, isolated from scab lesions on potato tubers grown in the southern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, respectively, were characterized and identified through a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetic analyses of 16S rRNA sequences revealed that these two strains belong to the genus Streptomyces. Multilocus sequence analysis using five concatenated genes, atpD, gyrB, recA, rpoB and trpB, allocated strains IBSBF 2807T and IBSBF 2953T in distinct branches of Streptomyces phytopathogenic strains. PCR-RFLP analysis of the atpD gene also confirmed that these strains differ from the type strains of Streptomyces associated with potato scab. The morphological, physiological and biochemical characterization, along with the overall genome-related index properties, indicated that these two strains could be distinguished from their closest phylogenetic relatives and each other. According to the data, IBSBF 2807T and IBSBF 2953T represent two new Streptomyces species related to potato scab. The proposed names for these strains are Streptomyces hilarionis sp. nov. (IBSBF 2807T=CBMAI 2674T=ICMP 24297T=MUM 22.66T) and Streptomyces hayashii sp. nov (IBSBF 2953T=CBMAI 2675T=ICMP 24301T=MUM 22.68T).

Effect of pH soil and irrigation regimes on management of potato scab

Potato scab caused by different species of phytopathogenic Streptomyces is considered one of the main bacterial diseases of economic crop importance worldwide. Several studies are being carried out in order to control the disease, but until now, there is no efficient way to do this. Some management strategies have been investigated including application of chemical and biological products and utilization of resistant cultivars of potato but there are few reports about the impact of pH and irrigation regimes on the disease. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of these last two factors on the incidence and severity of potato scab caused by S. scabiei, S. acidiscabies, Streptomyces sp., S. caviscabies and S. europaeiscabiei in assays at pH 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 6.5 and 7.5; and irrigation regimes of once a week, alternate days and daily in greenhouse conditions. The experimental design for the pH tests was randomized blocks arranged in a 5x2 factorial scheme, with 5 replications and 3x2 for the irrigation regimes with 5 replications. The pH tests showed significant differences between the treatments and pH 4,0 - 4,5 presented lower incidence and severity of the disease for the most species tested but no significant differences were observed between the irrigation regimes. The soil acidification is considered a classic strategy for management of the disease and the results obtained herein corroborated this hypothesis.