• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.352-360
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• 2009

The potential of three plants extracts, to protect potato plants against bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum was determined under greenhouse and field conditions. All soil drenching treatments of aqueous plant extracts of Hibsicus sabdariffa, Punica granatum and Eucalyptus globulus significantly reduced the disease severity compared with inoculated control. Although the applications of all three plant extracts resulted in similar reductions of disease severity in field up 63.23 to 68.39%, treatment of E. globulus leaf extract was found greater in restricting the symptom development than other the two plant extracts in the greenhouse. More than 94% reduction in the bacterial wilt symptom was observed in potato plants. All tested plant extracts were effective in inhibiting the growth of bacterial pathogen, not only in vitro, but also in stem of potato plants as compared with the inoculated control Potato plants treated with extract of H. sabdariffa reduced bacterial growth more effectively than treatment with P. granatum and E. globulus. Activity of defence-related enzymes, including peroxidase, polyphenoloxidase and phenylalanine ammonia lyase, were significantly increased in plants treated with the plant extracts compared to the control during the experimental period. In general, the higher enzymes activities were determined in both inoculated and non-inoculated treated potato plants after 8 days from plant extracts treatment. These results suggested that these plant extracts may be play an important role in controlling the potato bacterial wilt disease, through they have antimicrobial activity and induction of systemic resistance in potato plants.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2016

Bacterial wilt of tomatoes caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is a devastating disease that limits the production of tomato in Korea. The best way to control this disease is using genetically resistant tomato plant. The resistance degree to R. solanacearum was evaluated for 285 tomato accessions conserved in the National Agrobiodiversity Center of Rural Development Administration. These accessions of tomato were originated from 23 countries. Disease severity of tomato accessions was investigated from 7 days to 14 days at an interval of 7 days after inoculation of R. solanacearum under greenhouse conditions. A total of 279 accessions of tomato germplasm were susceptible to R. solanacearum, resulting in wilt and death in 70 to 90% of these plants. Two tomato accessions were moderately resistant to R. solanacearum. Only four accessions showed high resistance against R. solanacearum. No distinct symptom of bacterial wilt appeared on the resistant tomato germplasms for up to 14 days after inoculation of R. solanacearum. Microscopy of resistant tomato stems infected with R. solanacearum revealed limited bacterial spread with thickening of pit membrane and gum production. Therefore, these four resistant tomato germplasms could be used in tomato breeding program against bacterial wilt.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.250-255
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• 2018

Pine wilt disease, caused by the nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is one of the most devastating conifer diseases decimating several species of pine trees on a global scale. Here, we report the draft genome of Raoultella ornithinolytica MG, which is isolated from mountain-cultivated ginseng plant as an bacterial endophyte and shows nematicidal activity against B. xylophilus. Our analysis of R. ornithinolytica MG genome showed that it possesses many genes encoding potential nematicidal factors in addition to some secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters that may contribute to the observed nematicidal activity of the strain. Furthermore, the genome was lacking key components of avermectin gene cluster, suggesting that nematicidal activity of the bacterium is not likely due to the famous anthelmintic agent of wide-spread use, avermectin. This genomic information of R. ornithinolytica will provide basis for identification and engineering of genes and their products toward control of pine wilt disease.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.362-371
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• 2019

Plant phenotype is affected by a community of associated microorganisms which requires dissection of the functional fraction. In this study, we aimed to culture the functionally active fraction of an upland soil microbiome, which can suppress tomato bacterial wilt. The microbiome fraction (MF) from the rhizosphere of Hawaii 7996 treated with an upland soil or forest soil MF was successively cultured in a designed modified M9 (MM9) medium partially mimicking the nutrient composition of tomato root exudates. Bacterial cells were harvested to amplify V3 and V4 regions of 16S rRNA gene for QIIME based sequence analysis and were also treated to Hawaii 7996 prior to Ralstonia solanacearum inoculation. The disease progress indicated that the upland MM9 $1^{st}$ transfer suppressed the bacterial wilt. Community analysis revealed that species richness was declined by successive cultivation of the MF. The upland MM9 $1^{st}$ transfer harbored population of phylum Proteobacteria (98.12%), Bacteriodetes (0.69%), Firmicutes (0.51%), Actinobacteria (0.08%), unidentified (0.54%), Cyanobacteria (0.01%), FBP (0.001%), OD1 (0.001%), Acidobacteria (0.005%). The family Enterobacteriaceae of Proteobacteria was the dominant member (86.76%) of the total population of which genus Enterobacter composed 86.76% making it a potential candidate to suppress bacterial wilt. The results suggest that this mixed culture approach is feasible to harvest microorganisms which may function as biocontrol agents.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.469-480
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• 2016

Bacterial wilt and grey mould in tomato plants are economically destructive bacterial and fungal diseases caused by Ralstonia solanacearum and Botrytis cinerea, respectively. Various approaches including chemical and biological controls have been attempted to arrest the tomato diseases so far. In this study, in vitro growths of bacterial R. solanacearum and fungal B. cinerea were evaluated using four different vitamins including thiamine (vitamin B1), niacin (vitamin B3), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), and menadione (vitamin K3). In planta efficacies of the four vitamin treatments on tomato protection against both diseases were also demonstrated. All four vitamins showed different in vitro antibacterial activities against R. solanacearum in dose-dependent manners. However, treatment with 2 mM thiamine was only effective in reducing bacterial wilt of detached tomato leaves without phytotoxicity under lower disease pressure ($10^6$ colony-forming unit [cfu]/ml). Treatment with the vitamins also differentially reduced in vitro conidial germination and mycelial growth of B. cinerea . The four vitamins slightly reduced the conidial germination, and thiamine, pyridoxine and menadione inhibited the mycelial growth of B. cinerea. Menadione began to drastically suppress the conidial germination and mycelial growth by 5 and 0.5 mM, respectively. Grey mould symptoms on the inoculated tomato leaves were significantly reduced by pyridoxine and menadione pretreatments one day prior to the fungal challenge inoculation. These findings suggest that disease-specific vitamin treatment will be integrated for eco-friendly management of tomato bacterial wilt and grey mould.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.334-344
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• 2022

Bacterial wilt is a re-emerging disease on dry bean and can affect many other crop species within the Fabaceae. The causal agent, Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens (CFF), is a small, Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium that is seed-transmitted. Infections in the host become systemic, leading to wilting and economic loss. Clean seed programs and bactericidal seed treatments are two critical management tools. This study characterizes the efficacies of five bactericidal chemicals against CFF. It was hypothesized that this bacterium was capable of forming biofilms, and that the cells within biofilms would be more tolerant to bactericidal treatments. The minimum biocide eradication concentration assay protocol was used to grow CFF biofilms, expose the biofilms to bactericides, and enumerate survivors compared to a non-treated control (water). Streptomycin and oxysilver bisulfate had EC95 values at the lowest concentrations and are likely the best candidates for seed treatment products for controlling seed-borne bacterial wilt of bean. The results showed that CFF formed biofilms during at least two phases of the bacterial wilt disease cycle, and the biofilms were much more difficult to eradicate than their planktonic counterparts. Overall, biofilm formation by CFF is an important part of the bacterial wilt disease cycle in dry edible bean and antibiofilm bactericides such as streptomycin and oxysilver bisulfate may be best suited for use in disease management.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.136-143
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• 2007

Despite the increased interests in biological control of soilborne diesease for environmental protection, biological control of bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum have not provided consistent or satisfying results. To enhance the control efficacy and reducing the inconsistency and variability, combinations of specific strains of microorganisms, each having a specific mechanism of control, were applied in this study. More than 30 microorganisms able to reduce the activity of pathogen by specific mechanism of action were identified and tested for their disease suppressive effects. After in vitro compatibility examinations, 21 individual strains and 15 combinations were tested in the greenhouse. Results indicated three-way combinations of different mode of control, TS3-7+A253-16+SKU78 and TS1-5+A100-1+SKU78, enhanced disease suppression by 70%, as compared to 30-50% reduction for their individual treatments. This work suggests that combining multiple traits antagonizing the pathogen improve efficacy of the biocontrol agents against Ralstonia solanacearum.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2007

Major diseases of tobacco and farmer's control practices were surveyed in the Kyeongbuk province area from 2005 to 2006. Mosaic caused by potato virus Y and bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum were most severe during the harvest season. Compared with the disease occurrence of ten years ago, the damage by tobacco mosaic virus reduced but bacterial wilt increased. These changes in the disease occurrences may probably be due to releasing the resistant tobacco cultivar to the mosaic virus but susceptible to the bacterial wilt pathogen. More than thirty percentage of the farmers have misused fungicides and also have applied the continuous mono-cropping system for more than ten years, and have chosen the incorrect crops for the rotation.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.239-244
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• 2007

MicroTom is a miniature tomato plants with various properties that make it as a model system for experiments in plant molecular biology. To extend its utility as a model plant to study a plant - bacterial wilt system, we investigated the potential of the MicroTom as a host plant of bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. We compared the disease progress on standard tomato and MicroTom by two inoculation methods, root dipping and soil drenching, using a race 1 strain GMI1000. Both methods caused the severe wilting on MicroTom comparable to commercial tomato plant, although initial disease development was faster in root dipping. From the diseased MicroTom plants, the same bacteria were successfully reisolated using semiselective media to fulfill Koch's postulates. Race specific and isolate specific virulence were investigated by root dipping with 10 isolates of R. solanacearum isolated from tomato and potato plants. All of the tested isolates caused the typical wilt symptom on MicroTom. Disease severities by isolates of race 3 was below 50 % until 15 days after inoculation, while those by isolates of race 1 reached over 50% to death until 15 days. This result suggested that MicroTom can be a model host plant to study R. solanacearum - plant interaction.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.334-347
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• 2017

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is an important disease in cultivation of chili pepper, causing plant death and significant yield losses. Cultivation of disease-resistant varieties is the most suitable measure to control bacterial wilt of chili pepper. To establish an efficient screening method for resistant chili pepper to R. solanacearum, six resistant or susceptible cultivars to the R. solanacearum were selected and the development of bacterial wilt on the cultivars according to several conditions was investigated. Drenching bacterial suspension into the cut roots using a scalpel was more simple and effective to distinguish resistant and susceptible cultivars than inoculation methods of root-dipping or soil-drenching without wounding. A resistant pepper, 'MC4' to R. solanacearum showed high resistance under the developed conditions which were 21- to 28-day-old pepper inoculated with $1{\times}10^8cfu/ml$ of bacterial suspension. On the other hands, the susceptible cultivars represented high disease severity under the conditions. These results indicated that we developed an efficient method to evaluate resistance of chili pepper cultivars against bacterial wilt. In addition, we successfully evaluated resistance degree of 140 commercial chili pepper cultivars to R. solanacearum using the developed method.