Vegetable soft rot bacteria in the Philippines

Vegetable soft rot bacteria in the Philippines

Bangkok Southeast Asian Symposium on Plant Disease in the Tropics Thailand

[1981]

p.109

REP.CC-0504

Five hundred eighteen specimens of vegetable soft rot diseases were collected from 19 towns and 20 cities in 14 provinces in the island of Luzon, 5 in the Visayas and 8 in Mindanao. Of the more than 4,000 single bacterial colony inoculations made with isolates from these specimens, 80 isolates from 80 specimens were found plant pathogenic vegetable soft rotters. Detailed studies of the morphological, cultural, physiological and biochemical characteristics of the 80 isolates showed that 82.5 percent were Erwinia carotovora var. carotovcra (Jones) Dye; 11.25 percent were Bacillus subtilis Cohn; 3.75 percent were Pseudomonas alliicola (Burkh.) Starr and Burkh.; and 1.25 percent were P. cepacia Burkh.; a new species of non-motile xanthomonad. Xanthomonas capsici n. sp. represented the remaining 1.25 percent of the total isolates. Studies of the host range of the isolates using 13 kinds of vegetables, namely, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, pechay, mustard, carrot, radish, potato, tomato, pepper, onion, celery, cucumber and lettuce showed that: (1) E. carotovora var. carotovora isolates, varied in their host range from 3 to 13 vegetables, but, with at least 74 percent of the isolates attacking 7 to 11 vegetables; (2) most isolates of B. subtilis could infect a relatively wide range of host plants including radish, potato, tomato, peper, onion, cucumber and Chinese cabbage; (3) the potential host plants of P. alliicola include carrot, radish, tomato, pepper, onion, celery, cucumber and cabbage, while P. cepacia was apparently limited to onion; and (4) X. capsici could infect, in addition to pepper, tomato, potato and onion. It was concluded that: (1) E. carotovora var. carotovora is the most important and wide spread bacterial soft rot pathogen of commonly grown vegetables (2) P. are the primary bacterial soft rotters of onion under natural conditions; and (3) B. subtilis is an important soft rot pathogen of pepper. [AS]

The second southeast Asian symposium on plant diseases in the tropics; Program and abstracts

Research > Published Articles