Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

In 2015, pepper black spot disease became seriously prevalent in Guangdong Province, China. The stem and petioles of diseased plants were strewn with black, circular to oval and bulged spots. A bacterium was isolated from black spots on stem. The bacterium could cause same symptoms on pepper plants by sprinkling inoculation. 16S rDNA sequences of bacterium shared 99-100% identity with Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense strain 1033. The 322 bp specific fragment could be amplified from the five bacterial isolates using primers Br1f/L1r specific for P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense. Characteristics of the bacterium were consistent with those of P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense reported. Thus, the causal bacterium identified was P. carotovorum subsp. 2 brasiliense. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of pepper black spot disease caused by P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense in China.