Potato diseases caused by soft rot erwinias: an overview of pathogenesis

By M. Pérombelon. Plant Pathology, 2002

592 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Three soft rot erwinias, Erwinia carotovora ssp. carotovora, E. carotovora ssp. atroseptica and E. chrysanthemi are associated with potatoes causing tuber soft rot and blackleg (stem rot). Latent infection of tubers and stems is widespread. As opportunistic pathogens, the bacteria tend to cause disease when potato resistance is impaired. Pathogenesis or disease development in potato tubers and stems is discussed in terms of the interaction between pathogen, host and environment, microbial competition and recent findings on the molecular basis of pathogenicity. Emphasis is placed on the role of free water and anaerobiosis in weakening tuber resistance and in providing nutrient for erwinias to multiply. Blackleg symptoms are expressed when erwinias predominate in rotting mother tubers, invade the stems and multiply in xylem vessels under favourable weather conditions. Soft rot erwinias tend to out-compete other bacteria in tuber rots because of their ability to produce larger quantities of a wider range of cell wall-degrading enzymes. However, despite extensive studies on their induction, regulation and secretion, little is known about the precise role of the different enzymes in pathogenesis. The putative role of quorum-sensing regulation of these enzymes in disease development is evaluated. The role certain pathogenicity-related characters, including motility, adhesion, siderophores, detoxifying systems and the hrp gene complex, common to most bacteria including symbionts and saprophytes, could play in latent and active infections is also discussed.

Subfields: Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b1fd3818cde56c6452a541155d698884fb303283

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Citations in the corpus

Genetic characterisation of Pectobacterium wasabiae causing soft rot disease of potato in New Zealand (2010, unknown): “atrosepticum is found almost exclusively on potatoes, usually associated with an aerial stem disease called blackleg (Pérombelon 2002).”
Understanding Root Rot Disease in Agricultural Crops (2020, background): “The ability to produce a broader range of enzymes more rapidly and larger quantities than pectolytic saprophytic microorganisms enables bacterial root rots to invade living plants more readily [247,251].”
Characterization of Dickeya strains isolated from potato and river water samples in Finland (2008, background): “2003), has been regarded as the causal agent of soft rot (Pérombelon 2002; Toth et al. 2003).”
Distribution of Dickeya spp. and Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum in naturally infected seed potatoes (2009, methodology): “2008) Blackleg symptoms vary depending on the initial bacterial concentrations in seed tubers, the susceptibility of the potato cultivar and environmental conditions, particularly temperature and soil moisture content (Perombelon 2002).”
Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliensis causing blackleg on potatoes in South Africa (2009, background): “The most important determining factor for symptom expression in potatoes infected with Pectobacterium and Dickeya spp. is the titre of the bacterial population present in contaminated seed tubers at the time of planting (Bain et al. 1990, Pérombelon 2002).”
Symptoms and yield reduction caused by Dickeya spp. strains isolated from potato and river water in Finland (2010, background): “These bacterial species were previously included in Erwinia chrysanthemi and considered pathogenic in warm and tropical climates, where several of them caused soft rot and stem rot in potato (Pérombelon 2002).”
Assessment of recent outbreaks of Dickeya sp. (syn. Erwinia chrysanthemi) slow wilt in potato crops in Israel (2009, background): “is recognised as an important pathogen of potato (Pérombelon 2002) in many areas, including Northern Europe.”
Control of blackleg and tuber soft rot of potato caused by Pectobacterium and Dickeya species: a review. (2011, background): “Competition within rotting mother tubers, modulated by environmental conditions, temperature especially, determines which pathogen will predominate if more than one is present (Perombelon, 2002).”
Top 10 plant pathogenic bacteria in molecular plant pathology. (2012, background): “Pectobacterium carotovorum is geographically widely distributed, whereas Pca is largely confined to cooler climates (Pérombelon, 2002; Pérombelon and Kelman, 1980; Pérombelon and Salmond, 1995; Salmond, 1992; Toth et al., 2003).”