Analyses of Host Specificity, Immune Interactions and New Virulence Candidates of Pseudomonas syringae

• Main Author: Sanina, Natali
• Other Authors: Guttman, David S.
• Format: Others
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: host specificity; Pseudomonas syringae; immune interactions; 0369
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/17220

We studied the host specificity, interactions with plant immune systems, and virulence factors of the phytopathogenic Type III secretion system-carrying bacterium Pseudomonas syringae. In studying host specificity, we ran growth and pod assays using seventeen pathovars of P. syringae on kidney bean hosts. We tracked bacterial growth numbers over six days and compared pathovar growth patterns. To study immune interactions with host plants, we performed effector-triggered immunity induction and suppression assays with individual effectors in Arabidopsis thaliana to determine whether effector evolutionary age was related to resultant plant immune responses. No correlations were observed. To generate candidate virulence effectors, we sequenced mRNA from seven P. syringae pathovars grown in inducing media and pulled out hits to virulence-related genes.