Dataset Information

Absence of lysogeny in wild populations of Erwinia amylovora and Pantoea agglomerans.

ABSTRACT: Lytic bacteriophages are in development as biological control agents for the prevention of fire blight disease caused by Erwinia amylovora. Temperate phages should be excluded as biologicals since lysogeny produces the dual risks of host resistance to phage attack and the transduction of virulence determinants between bacteria. The extent of lysogeny was estimated in wild populations of E.?amylovora and Pantoea agglomerans with real-time polymerase chain reaction primers developed to detect E.?amylovora phages belonging to the Myoviridae and Podoviridae families. Pantoea agglomerans, an orchard epiphyte, is easily infected by Erwinia spp. phages, and it serves as a carrier in the development of the phage-mediated biological control agent. Screening of 161 E.?amylovora isolates from 16 distinct geographical areas in North America, Europe, North Africa and New Zealand and 82 P.?agglomerans isolates from southern Ontario, Canada showed that none possessed prophage. Unstable phage resistant clones or lysogens were produced under laboratory conditions. Additionally, a stable lysogen was recovered from infection of bacterial isolate Ea110R with Podoviridae phage ?Ea35-20. These laboratory observations suggested that while lysogeny is possible in E.?amylovora, it is rare or absent in natural populations, and there is a minimal risk associated with lysogenic conversion and transduction by Erwinia spp. phages.

SUBMITTER: Roach DR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4408183 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Absence of lysogeny in wild populations of Erwinia amylovora and Pantoea agglomerans.

Roach Dwayne R DR Sjaarda David R DR Sjaarda Calvin P CP Ayala Carlos Juarez CJ Howcroft Brittany B Castle Alan J AJ Svircev Antonet M AM

Microbial biotechnology 20150212 3

Lytic bacteriophages are in development as biological control agents for the prevention of fire blight disease caused by Erwinia amylovora. Temperate phages should be excluded as biologicals since lysogeny produces the dual risks of host resistance to phage attack and the transduction of virulence determinants between bacteria. The extent of lysogeny was estimated in wild populations of E. amylovora and Pantoea agglomerans with real-time polymerase chain reaction primers developed to detect E. a ...[more]

PMID: 25678125

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Pantoea agglomerans strains are among the most promising biocontrol agents for a variety of bacterial and fungal plant diseases, particularly fire blight of apple and pear. However, commercial registration of P. agglomerans biocontrol products is hampered because this species is currently listed as a biosafety level 2 (BL2) organism due to clinical reports as an opportunistic human pathogen. This study compares plant-origin and clinical strains in a search for discriminating genotypic/phenotypic markers using multi-locus phylogenetic analysis and fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphisms (fAFLP) fingerprinting. RESULTS: Majority of the clinical isolates from culture collections were found to be improperly designated as P. agglomerans after sequence analysis. The frequent taxonomic rearrangements underwent by the Enterobacter agglomerans/Erwinia herbicola complex may be a major problem in assessing clinical associations within P. agglomerans. In the P. agglomerans sensu stricto (in the stricter sense) group, there was no discrete clustering of clinical/biocontrol strains and no marker was identified that was uniquely associated to clinical strains. A putative biocontrol-specific fAFLP marker was identified only in biocontrol strains. The partial ORF located in this band corresponded to an ABC transporter that was found in all P. agglomerans strains. CONCLUSION: Taxonomic mischaracterization was identified as a major problem with P. agglomerans, and current techniques removed a majority of clinical strains from this species. Although clear discrimination between P. agglomerans plant and clinical strains was not obtained with phylogenetic analysis, a single marker characteristic of biocontrol strains was identified which may be of use in strain biosafety determinations. In addition, the lack of Koch's postulate fulfilment, rare retention of clinical strains for subsequent confirmation, and the polymicrobial nature of P. agglomerans clinical reports should be considered in biosafety assessment of beneficial strains in this species.

Dataset Information

Absence of lysogeny in wild populations of Erwinia amylovora and Pantoea agglomerans.

Publications

Absence of lysogeny in wild populations of Erwinia amylovora and Pantoea agglomerans.

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