Survival of pv. in detached kiwifruit leaves at different environmental conditions.

pv. () is the causal agent of kiwifruit canker, a serious threat to commercial kiwifruit production worldwide. Studies of the movement path and the survival time of in the host are crucial for integrated management programs. Hence, we used with GFPuv gene (GFPuv) strain to investigate the movement path of in leaves and branches, and the survival time of in leaves under different environmental conditions. We found that the pathogen spread longitudinally in the branches and leaves rather than transverse path. Additionally, the survival time of bacteria in fallen leaves under different environmental conditions were simulated by the way of infecting the detached kiwifruit leaves. survives the longest, up to 43 days in detached kiwifruit leaves with high humidity (above 80%) at 5 °C, and up to 32 days with low humidity (20%). At 15 °C, the can survive in detached kiwifruit leaves for 20-30 days with increasing humidity. At 25 °C, it can only survive for 3 days with low humidity (20%) and 15 days with high humidity (above 80%). Furthermore, the population growth experiments showed that bacterial growth of was more favorable in detached kiwifruit leaves with above 80% humidity at 5 °C. These results suggest that the survival condition of in detached kiwifruit leaves is significantly affected by environmental conditions, and provide the basis for the control timing and technology of kiwifruit canker.