VIEW ARTICLE

Ecology and Physiology of Fluorescent Pectolytic Pseudomonads. David C. Sands, Department of Plant Pathology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, P.O. Box 1106, New Haven 06504; Lester Hankin, Department of Biochemistry, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, P.O. Box 1106, New Haven 06504. Phytopathology 65:921-924. Accepted for publication 11 April 1975. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-65-921.

A selective medium was used to isolate fluorescent pectolytic pseudomonads from potato tubers and potato rhizospheres, leafy plant tissue, soil, sewage, and garbage. One-hundred forty isolates were subjected to 21 biochemical tests and evaluated for ability to macerate potato tissue. No single biochemical test or group of tests could be used to differentiate isolates that macerate from those which do not. Potato-macerating isolates among the fluorescent pseudomonads represented a continuum of phenotypes from Pseudomonas fluorescens to Pseudomonas putida. Fluorescent pseudomonads were commonly isolated from soft rots of potato tuber, but rarely were found in the soil obtained from potato fields at planting time. Examination of 18 foundation seed piece sources showed that 15 contained fluorescent pseudomonads able to macerate potato tissue.