Comparative Analysis of Korean and Japanese Strains of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae Causing Bacterial Canker of Kiwifruit

Abstract

Genomic and phenotypic characteristics of the bacterial strains of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae and P. syringae pv. syringae collected from several kiwifruit orchards of Korea were investigated and compared with those from Japan to elucidate their phylogenic relationships. All the strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae and pv. syringae tested were sensitive to copper sulfate but Korean and Japanese strains showed quite different responses to streptomycin. Korean strains were sensitive to streptomycin, but most of the Japanese strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae were highly resistant to streptomycin. Japanese strains were also relatively more resistant to oxytetracycline than Korean strains. Plasmid profiles were not valuable to distinguish Korean strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae frombJapanese strains. One or more indigenous plasmids with more than 15 kb in size were detected in all strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae, but the number and sizes of plasmids harbored in P. syringae pv. actinidiae were variable among the strains regardless of their geographic origins. There also observed no significant relationship among resistance levels of the strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae to antibiotics, their pathogenicity and plasmid profiles. RAPD profiles were useful to analyze the strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae and pv. syringae. All the strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae fell into a wide cluster separated from the strains of P. syringae pv. syringae, but Korean strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae were separated from Japanese strains. The results support that Korean and Japanese strains of P. syringae pv. actinidiae may have different phylogenic origins.