• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.137-151
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• 2021

The present study describes the bacterial blight of walnut, caused by Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis (Xaj) in the northern Gyeongbuk province, Korea. Disease symptoms that appear very similar to anthracnose symptoms were observed in walnut trees in June 2016. Pathogens were isolated from disease infected leaves, fruits, shoots, bud, flower bud of walnut, and cultured onto yeast dextrose carbonate agar plates. Isolated bacteria with bacterial blight symptoms were characterized for their nutrient utilization profiles using Biolog GN2 and Vitek 2. In addition, isolates were subjected to physiological, biochemical, and morphological characterizations. Furthermore, isolates were identified using 16S rDNA sequence analysis, and multi-locus sequence analysis using atpD, dnaK, efp, and rpoD. To confirm pathogenicity, leaves, fruits, and stems of 3-year-old walnut plants were inoculated with bacterial pathogen suspensions as a foliar spray. One week after inoculation, the gray spots on leaves and yellow halos around the spots were developed. Fruits and stems showed browning symptoms. The pathogen Xaj was re-isolated from all symptomatic tissues to fulfill Koch's postulates, while symptoms were not appeared on control plants. On the other hand, the symptoms were very similar to the symptoms of anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. When walnut plants were inoculated with combined pathogens of Xaj and C. gloeosporioides, disease symptoms were greater in comparison with when inoculated alone. Xaj population size was more in the month of April than March due to their dormancy in March, and sensitive to antibiotics such as oxytetracycline and streptomycin, while resistant to copper sulfate.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.563-573
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• 2022

Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis (Xaj) is a globally important bacterial pathogen of walnut trees that causes substantial economic losses in commercial walnut production. Although prophages are common in bacterial plant pathogens and play important roles in bacterial diversity and pathogenicity, there has been limited investigation into the distribution and function of prophages in Xaj. In this study, we identified and characterized 13 predicted prophages from the genomes of 12 Xaj isolates from around the globe. These prophages ranged in length from 11.8 kb to 51.9 kb, with between 11-75 genes and 57.82-64.15% GC content. The closest relatives of these prophages belong to the Myoviridae and Siphoviridae families of the Caudovirales order. The phylogenetic analysis allowed the classification of the prophages into five groups. The gene constitution of these predicted prophages was revealed via Roary analysis. Amongst 126 total protein groups, the most prevalent group was only present in nine prophages, and 22 protein groups were present in only one prophage (singletons). Also, bioinformatic analysis of the 13 identified prophages revealed the presence of 431 genes with an average length of 389.7 bp. Prokka annotation of these prophages identified 466 hypothetical proteins, 24 proteins with known function, and six tRNA genes. The proteins with known function mainly comprised prophage integrase IntA, replicative DNA helicase, tyrosine recombinase XerC, and IS3 family transposase. There was no detectable insertion site specificity for these prophages in the Xaj genomes. The identified Xaj prophage genes, particularly those of unknown function, merit future investigation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.81 no.2
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• pp.191-199
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• 1992

This study was conducted to identify fungi causing canker dieback and melanconis disease of walnut trees (Juglans sinensis Dode) in Korea and clarify the pathogenicity and factors affecting the growth of these fungi. The causal fungi isolated from infected walnut stems and branches obtained from the commercial walnut orchards in Cheonwon, Goesan, Youngdong were identified as Botryosphaeria dothidea (Moug, ex Fries) Casati et de Notaris, Phoniopsis albobestita Fairman, Melanconis juglandis (Ellis et Everhart) Graves and their pathogenicity was confirmed by inoculation test. Temperature range for minimum growth of three fungi was 8 to $35^{\circ}C$ and the optimum temperature for mycelial growth of B. dothidea and P. albobestita ranged from 25 to $30^{\circ}C$, while the optimum temperature for M. juglandis ranged from 20 to $25^{\circ}C$. The optimum pH range for mycelial growth of P. albobestita was 4.0~5.0 and that for B. dothidea and P. juglandis 4.0~8.0. Glucose, sucrose, starch or maltose, as a carbon source, and histidine or potassium nitrate as a nitrogen source were more suitable compounds for growth. of B, dothidea, P. albobestita grew very well on the medium containing alanine and potassium nitrate as a nitrogen source, and utilized well glucose and sucrose as a carbon source. M. juglandis grew well on the medium containing glucose, and sucrose as a carbon source and utilized well potassium nitrate as a nitrogen source. The dieback and twig blight caused by P. albobestita were more severe than those by B. dothidea and M. juglandis at three locations investigated. Incidences of canker and dieback were more frequently observed in aged walnut trees than in young ones.