Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven 06511, CT, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee 53211, WI, USA.
Mol Plant Pathol. 2018 Jul;19(7):1652-1666. doi: 10.1111/mpp.12647. Epub 2018 Mar 6.
Erwinia amylovora is the causal agent of fire blight, one of the most devastating diseases of apple and pear. Erwinia amylovora is thought to have originated in North America and has now spread to at least 50 countries worldwide. An understanding of the diversity of the pathogen population and the transmission to different geographical regions is important for the future mitigation of this disease. In this research, we performed an expanded comparative genomic study of the Spiraeoideae-infecting (SI) E. amylovora population in North America and Europe. We discovered that, although still highly homogeneous, the genetic diversity of 30 E. amylovora genomes examined was about 30 times higher than previously determined. These isolates belong to four distinct clades, three of which display geographical clustering and one of which contains strains from various geographical locations ('Widely Prevalent' clade). Furthermore, we revealed that strains from the Widely Prevalent clade displayed a higher level of recombination with strains from a clade strictly from the eastern USA, which suggests that the Widely Prevalent clade probably originated from the eastern USA before it spread to other locations. Finally, we detected variations in virulence in the SI E. amylovora strains on immature pear, and identified the genetic basis of one of the low-virulence strains as being caused by a single nucleotide polymorphism in hfq, a gene encoding an important virulence regulator. Our results provide insights into the population structure, distribution and evolution of SI E. amylovora in North America and Europe.
果胶菌是火疫病的病原体,火疫病是苹果和梨的毁灭性疾病之一。果胶菌被认为起源于北美洲,现已传播到全球至少 50 个国家。了解病原体种群的多样性及其向不同地理区域的传播,对于未来减轻这种疾病的影响至关重要。在这项研究中,我们对北美洲和欧洲的 Spiraeoideae 感染(SI)果胶菌种群进行了扩展的比较基因组研究。我们发现,尽管仍然高度同质,但 30 个果胶菌基因组的遗传多样性比之前确定的要高出约 30 倍。这些分离株属于四个不同的进化枝,其中三个具有地理聚类,而其中一个包含来自不同地理位置的菌株(“广泛流行”进化枝)。此外,我们揭示了广泛流行进化枝的菌株与严格来自美国东部的菌株之间存在更高水平的重组,这表明广泛流行进化枝可能起源于美国东部,然后传播到其他地区。最后,我们在未成熟梨上检测到 SI 果胶菌菌株的毒力变化,并确定了一个低毒力菌株的遗传基础是由于 hfq 基因中的单个核苷酸多态性引起的,hfq 基因编码一个重要的毒力调节因子。我们的研究结果提供了对北美洲和欧洲 SI 果胶菌种群结构、分布和进化的深入了解。