Poster: Diseases of Plants: New & Emerging Diseases
549-P
Emergence of a novel white stripe disease pathogen Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain Sia5 in rice fields of Punjab under the climate change scenario
K. RIAZ (1), K. Riaz (2), A. Dilferoze (3), M. Alam (3), A. Riaz (4), S. Jameel (5), S. Khan (6), A. Hannan (7) (1) Department of Plant Pathology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan; (2) University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan; (3) Univ
Under severe fluctuations in temperature and rainfall patterns several previously unimportant pathogens are gaining importance especially in chief cash crops in many parts of the world. Recent surveys over the last three years in the rice Kallar belt districts of Punjab (Kala Shah Kaku, Hafizabad, Sheikhupura, Narowal, Shakargarh, and Sialkot) depicted the presence of a novel disease and its associated pathogen which is responsible for the appearance of white stripe symptoms on leaves that start from the leaf tip and extend along the midrib through the leaf lamina towards the base of the leaf sheath. Under severe infection leaf size got reduced, whole leaves got dried and panicles matured very late. Diseases incidence ranged from 25-30% inflicting 20-25 % yield losses. Pathogen was isolated on nutrient agar that formed dark to pale yellow raised colonies with fluffy appearance and was reconfirmed through pathogenicity testing on susceptible rice variety. The most aggressive and most virulent isolate belonged to Sialkot region and was characterized as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain Sia5 through the BLAST searches and phylogenetic analysis of its PCR amplified 16srDNA sequence (GB: KT924441.1) and other biochemical characteristics. This is the first report on the occurrence of white stripe disease in rice from Pakistan.