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Title: THE IMPACT OF PATCHINESS AND LIFE STRATEGIES ON SPREAD OF PHYLLOSPHERE BACTERIA

Author
item HIRANO, SUSAN - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
item RIELY, B - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
item FOURRIER, K - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
item BAKER, L - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
item Upper, Christen

Submitted to: Risk Assessment Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/26/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Our experiments compared spread of different bacterial strains across three different substrates. Strain B728a of P. syringae pv syringae (Pss) is a pathogenic strain that aggressively colonizes bean leaves in the field. Strain NPS3136 is derived from B728a by inactivation of lemA, a gene required for pathogenicity. NPS3136 is less fit in the field than its parent. Snap bean seed was inoculated with a slurry of bacterial cells immediately before planting in a source area. Spread of these bacteria across six meter barriers of bare soil, soybeans and snap beans was followed after plant emergence. One week after planting (less than two days after emergence) both strains of Pss had spread across the barriers (4.4 % of the plants in the sinks had Pss). Two weeks after planting (eight days after emergence), population sizes of the two Pss strains in the sinks were equal. However, spread of both strains was less across a snap bean barrier than across either bare ground or soybeans. One week later (three weeks after planting) strain B728a had attained population sizes in the sinks approximately 100 fold larger than had strain NPS3136, and the effect of barrier on that strain had disappeared. Thus, there was no difference between the two strains with respect to dispersal, but the wild type strain spread more than the mutant due to its greater ability to grow on leaves.