Detection and identification of wheat and barley phytopathogens in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Grain export is an important branch of the food business in the Russian Federation. The countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America are importers of Russian grain. Each importing country has its own requirements for the phytosanitary condition of imported products. One important requirement for importers is the absence of pathogens that can cause bacterial diseases of grain crops, such as Pectobacterium rhapontici, Rathayibacter tritici, Pseudomonas fuscovaginae, Pseudomonas syringae pvs., Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae, Xanthomonas translucens pvs., Rathayibacter rathayi, and Pseudomonas cichorii. Reliable information on the distribution of these bacterial strains in the Russian Federation is limited. Methods for the isolation and identification of these bacterial pathogens have not been developed to date, which increases the risk of the spread of phytopathogens that could cause significant economic harm to agriculture. The purpose of this study was to isolate and identify the causative agents of bacterial diseases of wheat and barley. In order to do this, we collected samples of plant material of wheat and barley in the Rodionovo-Nesvetaysky, Myasnikovsky, Zernogradsky, Azovsky, and Martynovsky districts of the Rostov Oblast. Various bacterial strains were isolated from the obtained samples using the appropriate cultural media. The strains were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers designed for the 16S ribosomal RNA (PSF/PSR and 8UA/519B) and SyD1/SyD2 primers selected for the Pseudomonas syringae genome (GenBank CP047267.1) with subsequent sequencing according to the Sanger method. As a result, the following bacterial strains were isolated and identified from wheat and barley samples: Curtobacterium sp., Paenibacillus sp., Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas azotoformans, P. poae, P. azotoformans, P. hibiscicola, P. fluorescens, Stenotrophomonas sp., P. syringae pv. syringae, P. syringae pv. atrofaciens, Bacillus sp., Erwinia sp., Pantoea sp., and Pantoea agglomerans.