In April of 2009, leaf blight symptoms were observed on field peas (Pisum sativum L.) grown in Söke, Torbali, and Ödemis counties in the Aegean Region of Turkey. Field inspections revealed disease incidence as high as 45% and the disease was found in 13 commercial fields. Initial symptoms consisted of small, dark green, water-soaked lesions on leaves, stipules, and stems near ground level. Lesions often enlarged and coalesced and turned chocolate brown with a water-soaked margin. Stem infections usually coalesced and girdled the stem spreading upward to stipules and leaflets forming a fan-like lesion on the stipule. A fluorescent, gram-negative bacterium was consistently isolated from diseased tissues onto King's B medium. Twelve strains (five from cv. Early Sweet, three from cv. Geneva, two from cv. Bolero, and two from cv. Carina) from thirteen pea fields were obtained. All strains metabolized glucose oxidatively, and their reactions in LOPAT tests were +, —, —, —, +, and thus classified as belonging to Pseudomonas syringae LOPAT group Ia (1). The 12 strains utilized homoserine, inositol, sorbitol, sucrose, mannitol, and mannose but did not utilize erythritol, trehalose, and L-tartarate. All showed ice nucleation activity but variable results were obtained for gelatin liquefaction and esculin hydrolysis. Identification of P. syringae pv. pisi was confirmed by sequencing the 16S rDNA with primers Univ-1390R (3) and 27F (2). Sequences of the three local strains (Bz2, Bz4, and Bz8) were 100% identical to a type culture strain. The nucleotide sequence of strain Bz4 was submitted to GenBank (Accession No. GU332546). Pathogenicity tests were performed on greenhouse-grown 2-week-old pea plants cv. Geneva as three replicates in 12-cm pots containing a steamed sand/peat/soil mixture. Plants were stab inoculated by puncturing the main stem at its junction with the stipules at the second node from the apical end with a 26-gauge needle through a 5-μl drop of 108 CFU/ml bacterial suspensions. Control plants were inoculated with sterile water. After 10 days of incubation in a growth chamber at 24 ± 1°C with a 14-h photoperiod, stems inoculated with pea isolates resulted in water-soaked tissue spreading from the site of inoculation along the veins on stipules and leaflets that were identical to symptoms seen in the field. Control plants remained symptomless. Isolates recovered from the symptomatic stems showed the same morphological and biochemical features of the original isolates. All physiological and biochemical tests as well as the pathogenicity assay were performed at least twice and the type strain of P. syringae pv. pisi (NCPPB 2585) was used as reference. On the basis of the physiological, biochemical, genetic, and pathological characteristics, all strains were identified as P. syringae pv. pisi. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. syringae pv. pisi causing bacterial blight on pea in Turkey. Turkey currently produces approximately 93.000 t of peas annually and three-quarters of that is produced in Western Anatolia. The new disease may represent a limiting factor for future production.
References: (1) R. A. Lelliott et al. J. Appl. Bacteriol. 29:470, 1966. (2) W. G. Weisburg et al. J. Bacteriol. 173:697, 1991. (3) D. Zeng et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62:4504, 1996.
