Occurrence of bacterial canker of sweet cherry caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. morsprunorum

Bacterial canker of sweet cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) was observed in farmers' orchard in Goesan, Chungbuk in 2003. Typical canker symptom occurred on the branches or twigs of sweet cherry in early spring and bacterial exudates oozed out of the cracked barks of diseased trees. Watersoaked brown symptom appeared on the leaves and severe infection caused thorough defoliation on the branches or twigs of sweet cherry. When cut the severely infected branches or twigs, irregular and rusty-colored symptoms in sapwood and heartwood were clearly found, indicating that they could serve as specific symptoms of bacterial canker of sweet cherry. The gram negative, aerobic bacterium isolated from the lesion produced fluorescent pigments on King's B agar medium but did not grow at 37$^{\circ}C$ The bacterium formed Levan-type colonies, and showed negative reactions in oxidase reaction, arginine dihydrolysis test, and pectolytic activity Based on the biochemical and pathological characteristics, the causal organism was identified as Pseudomonas syringae pv. morsprunorum. This is the first report on bacterial canker of sweet cherry in Korea.