Population genomics insights into Pseudomonas syringae disease emergence and pathogen dissemination
B. VINATZER (1) (1) Virginia Tech, U.S.A.

Much has been learned in the field of molecular plant-microbe interactions about how individual crop-pathogens subdue the plant immune system and cause disease. For example, a vast repertoire of virulence genes has been identified for the model Arabidopsis and tomato pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. Strain DC3000 is one of a few dozen P. syringae strains known to cause crop diseases. Scouting for P. syringae in non-agricultural environments has revealed that crop pathogens represent a small minority of the total number of P. syringae strains that exist in the environment. This discovery led to many questions relevant to our understanding of crop diseases: 1. How are P. syringae crop pathogens related to their relatives in the environment? 2. What distinguishes crop pathogens from their environmental relatives in regard to virulence and their repertoires of pathogenicity genes? 3. Do crop pathogens and environmental relatives engage in exchange of genes through horizontal gene transfer? 4. what is the role of environmental relatives of crop pathogens in crop disease emergence? 5. Are crop pathogens exchanged between agricultural environments and non-agricultural environments? Sequencing the genomes of crop pathogens and isolates from the environment and comparing their genomes using population genomics approaches we have found preliminary answers to most of these questions.

Abstract Number: C23-1
Session Type: Concurrent