Phyllosphere bacterial communities structures on healthy and diseased  kiwifruits
G. BURIANI (1), L. Orrù (2), A. Lamontanara (2), V. Michelotti (2), I. Donati (3), G. Tacconi (2), F. Spinelli (3) (1) University of Bologna, Italy; (2) Agricultural Research Council (CREA) Genomic Research Centre, Italy; (3) University of Bologna, Italy

In the last ten years kiwifruit farming has been widely affected by the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) which is  the causative agent of the bacterial canker. Many evidences suggest a paramount influence of the  phyllosphere microbial community on pathgen ability to colonize host plant and in instauration of the pathogenesis. Despite the high economic impact of the disease, and the importance of the phyllosphere community on the onset of pathogenesis, the  epiphytic biocoenosis of kiwifruit is not yet characterized. The present study aimed to describe the bacterial community harbored by the flowers and leaves of A. chinensis and A. deliciosa both at qualitative and quantitative level. To achieve these goals, a metagenomic approach, based on deep sequencing of epiphyte DNA followed by the amplification of V3 - V4 region of gene16S, was adopted. It was described: ·       The different composition of the biocoenosis associated with the two main commercial species of Actinidia. The differences in microbial abundance and diversity reflect the morphological differences among these two species and could contribute to different susceptibility to the disease ·       The effect of different cultivation strategies (i.e. standard or organic) on the bicoenosis dynamics and biodiversity ·       The influence of Psa population on the composition of the epiphytitic biocoenosis ·       The abundance and persistence of non-pathogenic bacterial species of interest (i.e. Lactobacillus spp.)

Abstract Number: P4-89
Session Type: Poster