A Survey of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria in GSMNP
A Survey of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria in GSMNP
The unique and different forests, wild flowers, and grasses provide the most beautiful colors found anywhere. Unfortunately, these valuable plants are being threatened by various plant pathogens, such as the chestnut blight pathogen. Bacteria are one of major groups causing plant diseases. However, there is no record of pathogenic bacteria of plants in the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) database.
The objective of proposed research of this project is to survey pathogenic bacteria of plants growing in the Park to enrich the ATBI database. Molecular techniques and biochemical tests will be employed to identify plant pathogenic bacteria present in the Park. Bacterial disease samples will be prepared as permanent specimens.
The expected findings of this project will generate a list of pathogenic bacteria present in the Park, which will be added into the ATBI database, and will provide valuable clues to effectively managing these pathogenic bacteria.
A survey was conducted to identify plant-associated bacteria present in the Great Smoky National Park (GSMNP). More than 50 plant samples with suspected bacterial disease symptoms were collected from the national park. Bacterial cell streaming was observed from 11 of the collected samples under microscope. The bacteria associated with the disease samples were isolated using a routine method. Twenty-six bacterial isolates were obtained from the 11 plant samples (Table). Fatty acid analysis indicated that these bacteria isolates may belong to 5 genera of bacteria. Isolate 1-1 was recovered from solomon's seal is Erwinia billingiae, which was confirmed by DNA sequence analysis. E. billingiae is a plant pathogenic bacterium reported as a tree pathogen. Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, which is the tomato pathogen causing bacterial speck disease, was recovered from three locations and different plants. In addition, of the other 24 isolates, eight were the bacteria with diverse roles in nature, which including saprophytic and suppressive to plant pathogens. Some isolates recovered from the plants were similar to some of human and animal pathogens. All of the isolates will be new records in the national park. However, further confirmation of the identity and the relationship with plants are needed.
