The Knockout of Enterobactin-Related Gene in Results in Reduced Stress Resistance and Virulence towards the Primed Plants.

Siderophores produced by microorganisms to scavenge iron from the environment have been shown to contribute to virulence and/or stress resistance of some plant pathogenic bacteria. Phytopathogenic bacteria of genus possess genes for the synthesis of siderophore enterobactin, which role in plant-pathogen interactions has not been elucidated. In the present study we characterized the phenotype of the mutant strain of deficient for the enterobactin-biosynthetic gene . We showed that enterobactin may be considered as a conditionally beneficial virulence factor of . The knockout did not reduce virulence on non-primed plants; however, salicylic acid-primed plants were more resistant to Δ mutant than to the wild type . The reduced virulence of Δ mutant towards the primed plants is likely explained by its compromised resistance to oxidative stress.