In Vitro Pathogenicity of Pseudomonas savastanoi Isolated from Olive Trees in Iraq on Fruits of Various Plant Species and Their Molecular Characterisation |Biomedgrid

The present study was carried out to determine the pathogenicity of Pseudomonas savastanoi on carrots and some other fruits, and to characterize the isolates using molecular methods. Pathogenic Pseudomonas savastanoi bacterial samples were collected from olive trees with olive knot after a field survey of olive trees from around Duhok province in Iraq. The study period was determined to include the beginning of March until the end of May, after collecting the samples and transferring the samples to the laboratory and growing them on culture media. The samples were cultured on Blood agar, MacConkey agar and Cetrimide agar mediums for the diagnosis of Pseudomonas savastanoi and further studies. After activation, bacteria were inoculated on the carrots and other fruits of plants such as lemons, beans, local apples, and commercial apples. These fruits were subjected to the same environmental conditions of humidity, temperature, and incubation period. Results revealed that infection symptoms did not appear on the fruits after bacterial exposure. However, only some of the carrots were found to be infected after 13 days of incubation. On the other hand, when the incubation period was pro-longed to 20 days, all the carrots samples were infected. Bacteria were re-isolated from infected carrots and some basic microscopic, phenotypic and biochemical tests including oxidase, catalase and urease were performed on them. In addition, VITEK2 system were used for determining the isolates in species level. Also, PCR and RT-PCR and sequencing of 16S rRNA were performed to detect possible mutations.