RNA-seq analysis provides insights into cold stress responses of Xanthomonas citri pv. citri.

BACKGROUND: Xanthomonas citri pv. citri (Xcc) is a citrus canker causing Gram-negative bacteria. Currently, little is known about the biological and molecular responses of Xcc to low temperatures. RESULTS: Results depicted that low temperature significantly reduced growth and increased biofilm formation and unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) ratio in Xcc. At low temperature Xcc formed branching structured motility. Global transcriptome analysis revealed that low temperature modulates multiple signaling networks and essential cellular processes such as carbon, nitrogen and fatty acid metabolism in Xcc. Differential expression of genes associated with type IV pilus system and pathogenesis are important cellular adaptive responses of Xcc to cold stress. CONCLUSIONS: Study provides clear insights into biological characteristics and genome-wide transcriptional analysis based molecular mechanism of Xcc in response to low temperature.

Pathotypes of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. dieffenbachiae Isolated from Anthurium andraeanum in China.

Anthurium blight, caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. dieffenbachiae (Xad), is one of the most serious diseases of Anthurium andraeanum. However, little is known about variations in virulence between Xad pathotypes. Here, we examined the virulence of 68 Xad strains isolated from 30 anthurium plants from five regions of China against five different anthurium cultivars. Seven bacterial pathotypes were identified based on disease index and incidence analyses following foliar spray or leaf-clip inoculation. The resulting disease susceptibility patterns for pathotypes I⁻VII were RRRSS, RRSRS, RSRSR, RRSSS, RSSRS, RSSSS, and SSSSS, respectively. Overall, 72% of tested strains belonged to pathotypes VI or VII and were highly virulent. A further 22.1% of strains showed medium-level virulence and were classed as pathotype III, IV, or V, while the remaining 5.9% of strains were pathotype I or II, showing low virulence. Further analysis revealed differences in the virulence of Xad strains from the same anthurium cultivar, with variation also observed in pathovars associated with the same cultivar from different areas. Our results reveal the diversity and complexity of the Xad population structure in China and suggest that investigation of Xad pathotypes provides useful information to guide the identification and use of resistant varieties of A. andraeanum.

[Capacity evaluation of different media for isolating bacteria populations from the rhizosphere of tomato plants with DGGE].

Bacteria from the rhizosphere of tomato plants were cultured on nutrient broth, YG, soil extract and root exudate media. The capabilities of these 4 media for recovering the bacterium communities were evaluated with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technique. Results showed that there were certain differences in the obtained bacterial communities when different media and culture tempitures were applied. Numbers of CFU on solid media indicated that the YG agar medium incubated at 20 degrees C could recover more populations than the high-nutrient-concentration Nutrient agar medium; while the root exudate based medium recovered the highest numbers of bacteria from the rhizosphere of tomato plants. 16S rDNA fragments amplified by PCR from different media and rhizosphere soil bacterium DNA were analyzed with DGGE. The DGGE fingerprints showed that there was a discrepancy between bacterial populations observed by cultivation techniques and molecular retrieval. The rhizosphere pattern consisted of more strong bands than the media. The DGGE patterns of the 4 different media incubated at 28 degrees C showed a relatively high level of similarity. In contrast, those of the 4 media incubated at 20 degrees C were significantly different from each other. Shannon-Wiener index (H), species richness (S), Cs values and Cluster dendrogram analysis of different samples revealed that the YG agar medium and the root exudate based medium recovered the highest proportion of predominant populations from the rhizosphere. In the study a new strategy has been proposed for evaluating the capacity of different media in terms of recovering the predominant populations.