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A Pectate Lyase Homolog, xagP, in Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines Is Associated with Hypersensitive Response Induction on Tobacco

Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines is the causal agent of bacterial pustule disease of soybeans. A transposon insertional mutant (KU-P-M670) of X. axonopodis pv. glycines derived from wild-type strain KU-P-34017 lost the ability to induce the hypersensitive response (HR) on tobacco and pepper but retained its HR induction capacity on cucumber, sesame, and tomato. The mutation also resulted in loss of ability to cause a potato soft rot and express pectolytic activity at pH 6.5. An approximate 1.4-kb DNA fragment carrying the transposon insertion contained a single open reading frame that showed high homology with PSTRU-3, a pectate lyase gene in X. axonopodis pv. malvacearum. Complemented KU-P-M670 regained HR induction on tobacco and also pectolytic activity. Treatment of plants with inhibitors of eukaryotic metabolism blocked HR induction by wild-type strains and by complemented KU-P-M670. The presence of the pectate lyase homolog, which we designated xagP, in 26 X. axonopodis pv. glycines strains was highly correlated with their ability to induce an HR on tobacco. To our knowledge, this is the first study indicating a role for a functional pectate lyase in induction of a plant HR.