Unraveling the FirstXylella fastidiosaSubsp.FastidiosaGenome from Texas

Abstract

Abstract. Xylella fastidiosa Wells et al. is a gram-negative bacterial plant pathogen spread by sharpshooter insect vectors including the glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homoladisca vitripennis (Germar). Pierce's disease of grapevines, Vitis vinifera L., is the result of the grape strain of the bacterium, X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa growing in the xylem of the plant. Pierce's disease typically results in vine death within 1 to 2 years. Several X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa isolates have been sequenced from California, but to understand the evolutionary history of the bacterium and pathogenicity differences between populations, it was the goal of this project to sequence a genome of the Texas grape strain, GB514. Whole genome shotgun titanium pyrosequencing was performed and resulting data assembled, yielding two primary contigs one of which was 2.49 megabases and represented what is predicted in this version 1 assembly to be a complete Xylella chromosome. A second notable fragment did not assemble as pa...