Pseudomonas syringae: enterprising epiphyte and stealthy parasite

• DOI: 10.1099/mic.0.000715
• Publication Date: 2018-11-14T16:12:44Z
• Authors: Dawn L. Arnold; Gail M. Preston
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Pseudomonas syringae; Water Microbiology; Genome, Bacterial; Phylogeny; Plant Diseases

Pseudomonas syringae

is best known as a plant pathogenic bacterium that causes diseases in a multitude of hosts, and it has been used as a model organism to understand the biology of plant disease. Pathogenic and non-pathogenic isolates of

P. syringae

are also commonly found living as epiphytes and in the wider environment, including water sources such as rivers and precipitation. Ice-nucleating strains of

P. syringae

are associated with frost damage to crops. The genomes of numerous strains of

P. syringae

have been sequenced and molecular genetic studies have elucidated many aspects of this pathogen’s interaction with its host plants.