Ralstonia solanacearum Dps contributes to oxidative stress tolerance and to colonization of and virulence on tomato plants.

Abstract

Ralstonia solanacearum, an economically important soilborne plant pathogen, infects host roots to cause bacterial wilt disease. However, little is known about this pathogen's behavior in the rhizosphere and early in pathogenesis. In response to root exudates from tomato, R. solanacearum strain UW551 upregulated a gene resembling Dps, a nonspecific DNA binding protein from starved cells that is critical for stress survival in other bacteria. An R. solanacearum dps mutant had increased hydrogen peroxide sensitivity and mutation rate under starvation. Furthermore, dps expression was positively regulated by the oxidative stress response regulator OxyR. These functional results are consistent with a Dps annotation. The dps mutant caused slightly delayed bacterial wilt disease in tomato after a naturalistic soil soak inoculation. However, the dps mutant had a more pronounced reduction in virulence when bacteria were inoculated directly into host stems, suggesting that Dps helps R. solanacearum adapt to conditions inside plants. Passage through a tomato plant conferred transient increased hydrogen peroxide tolerance on both wild-type and dps mutant strains, demonstrating that R. solanacearum acquires Dps-independent oxidative stress tolerance during adaptation to the host environment. The dps mutant strain was also reduced in adhesion to tomato roots and tomato stem colonization. These results indicate that Dps is important when cells are starved or in stationary phase and that Dps contributes quantitatively to host plant colonization and bacterial wilt virulence. They further suggest that R. solanacearum must overcome oxidative stress during the bacterial wilt disease cycle.