Abstract
A PCR‐based diagnostic method was developed for direct detection from tuber lesions of pathogenic Streptomyces causing common scab of potato. Primers were designed to amplify a fragment of the txtAB (txtA and txtB) genes, which are pathogenicity determinants in the main pathogenic Streptomyces species. The method was evaluated on 84 naturally infected potato samples, comprising 19 potato cultivars, harvested in the years from 2000 to 2004 in the Netherlands, the UK, France, Germany and Spain. Pathogenic Streptomyces in tuber lesions were detected by PCR in 70 samples and were also successfully isolated from these 70 samples. All pathogenic isolates showed the basic general phenotypic traits of the S. scabiei phenetic cluster. RFLP analysis of amplified rRNA sequences, together with carbon source utilization and repetitive BOX profiles, allowed most isolates to be assigned to S. europaeiscabiei, which emerged as the main cause of potato common scab in Western Europe.
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