Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

Eighteen well-characterized Pseudomonas syringae pv. pisi strains, representative of the pathogen’s seven races were investigated by fluorescent AFLP (fAFLP) fingerprinting and were clearly differentiated. Typing by fAFLP provided a distinct, differentiating profile for each of the strains. Cluster analysis of the data grouped the seven P. syringae pv. pisi races into two well-separated clusters, these showing a genetic similarity of 68%. Group I included all strains belonging to races 1, 3B, 4B, 5 and 7, and group II included the strains belonging to races 2, 3A, 4A, 6 and local strains of race 6. It was possible to distinguish strains of races 1 and 3B, 4A and 6, 1 and 5, as well as strains of races 3 and 6, indistinguishable by other previously used techniques. Analysis of the fAFLP electropherograms also allowed, in some cases, identification of group-specific and race-specific discriminative fragments.