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Transfer from Erwinia herbicola to Escherichia coli of a plasmid associated with biocontrol of fire blight
Author(s) -
ELMASRY M. H.,
BROWN T. A.,
EPTON H. A. S.,
SIGEE D. C.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
plant pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.928
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1365-3059
pISSN - 0032-0862
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3059.1997.d01-86.x
Subject(s) - plasmid , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , escherichia coli , fire blight , erwinia , transformation (genetics) , agarose gel electrophoresis , bacteria , enterobacteriaceae , tetracycline , plasmid preparation , gene , antibiotics , genetics , pbr322
Strains of Erwinia herbicola effective in the biocontrol of fire blight of hawthorn were used to investigate the possibility that the antagonistic activity is coded by plasmid‐born genes. Agarose gel electrophoresis of isolated plasmids from four antagonistic Erw. herbicola strains showed a band of a supercoiled 12 kb plasmid in each strain, with a second band greater than 16.2 kb consistently seen in two strains. Erw. herbicola strains showed resistance to penicillin‐G, which could be conferred on penicillin‐G sensitive Escherichia coli TG1 by transformation with a pure Erw. herbicola plasmid preparation. Transformed strains of Esc. coli appeared to contain the Erw. herbicola 12 kb plasmid, but not the > 16.2 kb plasmid. In an agar plate assay, Esc. coli transformants produced an inhibition zone against Erw. amylovora similar to those produced by the original Erw. herbicola strains. In two biocontrol assays, the transformed Esc. coli strains had a suppressive effect on disease development on infected pear fruit slices and hawthorn blossoms.