Bacterial Blight of Leek: A New Disease in California Caused by Pseudomonas syringae

During 1996 and 1997, a new and damaging disease of leek (Allium porrum) was observed on greenhouse-produced transplants and field-grown plants in California. Symptoms were water-soaked lesions at leaf tips, which eventually expanded down the length of the leaf and resulted in brown, elongated, stripe-like lesions with yellow margins. Diseased leaves eventually wilted. A blue fluorescent pseudomonad was consistently recovered from lesions, and biochemical and physiological tests indicated that it was Pseudomonas syringae. Pathogenicity tests established that representative strains of this P. syringae induced disease symptoms in leek that were similar to those observed on leek plants in the greenhouse and field, and that this bacterium caused similar symptoms in onion, chives, and garlic plants. Representative strains were further characterized by fatty acid analysis, repetitive bacterial sequence-polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR), and rDNA sequencing. Fatty acid analysis confirmed that these isolates were P. syringae, but did not provide a clear pathovar designation. Rep-PCR analysis revealed that all the California leek P. syringae strains had identical DNA fingerprints and that these strains were indistinguishable from those of known strains of P. syringae pv. porri. In addition, the rDNA sequence of the spacer region between 16S and 23S rDNA genes was identical among the California leek P. syringae strains and P. syringae pv. porri. Together, these results established that the new leek disease in California is caused by P. syringae pv. porri. P. syringae pv. porri was recovered from a commercial leek seed lot imported into California, which suggests that the pathogen was introduced in association with seed. Commercial leek production in California is favorable for development of this disease because transplants are produced in greenhouses with high plant densities, overhead irrigation, and mowing of plants.