Duck-Hwan Park

Erwinia pyrifoliae, a Causal Endemic Pathogen of Shoot Blight of Asian Pear Tree in Korea

Bacterial strains were isolated from diseased samples of shoot blight collected from different pear growing orchards of Chuncheon, Korea from 1995 to 1998. Forty-nine strains showed their pathogenicity on immature fruit and shoot of pear. Microbiological, physiological, and biochemical tests were performed on these pathogenic strains. One strain, designated as WT3 in this study, was selected as a representative strain as it was collected from the first outbreak area in Jichonri, Chuncheon in 1995. Further detailed characterization of the strain WT3 was done by PCR amplification using specific primers described previously for distinguishing Erwinia pyrifoliae from its close pathogen Erwinia amylovora. Based on phenotypical, biochemical, and molecular analyses, strain WT3 was identified as a shoot blight pathogen which was the same as E. pyrifoliae Ep16 previously described by a German group in 1999.

Suppression of Meloidogyne incognita in Lettuce and Oriental Melon by Pasteuria penetrans KW1

Pasteuria penetrans KW1 (PP), parasitic bacterium of nematode, was isolated from oriental melon greenhouse soil in Korea and evaluated for the suppression effect on the reproduction of southern root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita (MI), in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. Chungchima) and oriental melon (Cucumis melo L. var. Eunchun). Pot experiments were conducted by planting the lettuce seedlings in medium inoculated with 5,000 MI juveniles/pot (J), J +100,000 PP endospores/l g medium, and J +200,000 PP endospores/1 g medium. After 11 weeks of plantation, number of root galls in J +200,000 PP endospores/1 g medium was decreased to 92/root (38.9%, control effect), compared to the J of 150/root. In the second plantation of lettuce in the same pots, the numbers of root gall were significantly decreased in PP treated pots with 75 (77.2%, control effect) and 150/root (54.4%, control effect) in J +200,000 and J +100,000 PP endospores/1 g medium, respectively, compared to the J of 330/root when harvested at 10 weeks after planting. In oriental melon, root gall percentages were 32.1 (60.2%, control effect) and 52.9％ (34.5%, control effect) in J +200,000 and J + 1(10,000 endospores/l g medium which were significantly lower than that of 80.7％ in J.

Antiviral Effects of the Culture Filtrate from Serratia marcescens Gsm01, against Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV)

The potential antiviral effects of the culture filtrates (CF) from Serratia marcescens strain Gsm01 against yellow strain of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV-Y) were investigated. The culture filtrate of S. marcescens strain Gsm01 applied on Chenopodium amaranticolor showed high inhibitory activity, likewise no necrosis appeared when applied on the tobacco plants 2 days before CMV-Y inoculation. When plants were challenge inoculated with CMV-Y for eighteen days, the disease incidence in plants with culture filtrate of S. marcescens Gsm01 did not exceed 59%, whereas 100% of control plants were severely infected. The results of double antibody sandwich-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA), reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), dot blotting, and western blotting showed that culture filtrate treatment highly affected the accumulation of CMV-Y or its CP protein gene in the treated plant leaves. It was also observed that the culture filtrate had no RNase activity on genomic RNAs of CMV-Y, suggesting that culture filtrate may not contain ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) or proteins with RNase activity. These data shows that culture filtrate of S. marcescens strain Gsm01 seems to be a promising source of antiviral substance for the practical use.

Isolation and Antifungal and Antioomycete Activity of Streptomyces scabiei Strain PK-A41, the Causal Agent of Common Scab Disease

The actinomycete strain PK-A41 was isolated from a soil sample from pepper fields in Ko-yang, Korea. The strain PK-A41 inhibited the mycelial growth of some plant pathogenic fungi and oomycete, Alternaria mali, Colletotrichum orbiculare, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici, Magnaporthe grisea, Rhizoctonia solani, and Phytophthora capsici. The presence of LL-diaminopi-melic acid in the cell wall extract and the nucleotide sequence of the 16S rDNA region of the strain PK-A41 was assigned to Streptomyces scabiei. Further morpho-logical, biochemical, and pathological analyses also confirmed the strain PK-A41 to be S. scabiei, which is pathogenic to potato tubers. The maximum antibiotic production of the strain PK-A41 was achieved when grown on the glycerol peptone broth (GPB) medium for 9 days.

Characterization of Streptomyces Species Causing Potato Scab in Korea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Pathogenicity

From 1996 to 1999, potato-growing areas in Korea were surveyed for identification and distribution of potato scab pathogens. Potato scab was widely distributed in the mass cultivation areas, especially in Jriu island, southern areas of Chonnam and Gyounggi provinces, and the alpine area of Gangwon province. Jeju island was the most affected area by this disease. A total of 55 Streptomyces strains were isolated from potato scab lesions, among which 40 strains were pathogenic on progeny tubers. Among the pathogenic strain, 21 strains were identified as previously described S. scabies, 7 Strains as S. turgidiscabies, and 5 Strains as S. acidiscabies, while 7 strains were observed as having distinct phenotypic properties. These strains were classified into six distinct clusters based on phenotypic characteristics and selected representative strains for each cluster. S. scabies (S33) had grey spores in a spiral chain. Mean-while, S. turgidiscabies (S27) had grey spores, S. acidiscabies (S71) had white spores, S. luridiscabiei (S63) had yellow-white spores, S. puniciscabiei (S77) had purple-red spores, and S. niveiscabiei (S78) had thin and compact white spores, all in a rectiflexuous chain. Pathogenicity was determined by the production of thaxtomin A and homologs of necl and ORFtnp genes. In TLC, representative strains S27, S71, S63, S77, and S78 produced a yellow band that co-migrated with the authentic thaxtomin A. However, thaxtomin A was not detected in chloroform extracts from oatmeal broth culture and Slice tuber tissue of S. luridiscabiei (S63) and S. puniciscabiei (S77) by HPLC analysis. In addition, no homologs of necl and ORFtnp genes in S. acidiscabies (S71), S. luridiscabiei (S63), S. puniciscabiei (S77), and S. niveiscabiei (S78) were detected by PCR and Southern hybridization analysis.