Erwinia

Erwinia
Orchid bacterial leaf blight caused by Erwinia sp.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Pseudomonadota
Class: Gammaproteobacteria
Order: Enterobacterales
Family: Erwiniaceae
Genus: Erwinia
Winslow et al., 1920
Species

See text

Erwinia is a genus of Enterobacterales bacteria containing mostly plant pathogenic species which was named for the famous plant pathologist, Erwin Frink Smith. It contains Gram-negative bacteria related to Escherichia coli, Shigella, Salmonella, and Yersinia. They are primarily rod-shaped bacteria.

Many infect woody plants. A well-known member of this genus is the species E. amylovora, which causes fire blight on apples, pears, and other Rosaceae crops; E. tracheiphila, though, causes bacterial wilt of cucurbits. Other familiar species, such as E. carotovora (another major cause of plant diseases), are more distantly related to the fire blight bacterium, and have been moved to genera Brenneria, Dickeya, and Pectobacterium.[1]


Erwinia aphidocola and E. persicina species were both observed to be present within the floral nectar microbial community of seven different orchid (Epipactis) flower species.[2] E. aphidicola appears to display characteristics of a pathogen as it had decimated fifty percent of a bean crop in Spain in late 2003.[3]

Erwinia rhapontici has been identified as a plant pathogen that produces a distinct diffusible pink pigment on sucrose-peptone agar and creates pink seeds in the hosts.[4] It is also found to be a wound pathogen[citation needed]. Wound pathogens are replicating microorganisms in a wound that can cause the host injury. It is possible that the bacterium can penetrate though young pea pods through wounds or injuries and infect seeds produced in the pod, causing deformed leaves.[5]

Erwinia uredovora is a bacterium from which Phytoene desaturase was isolated, which is the gene that is inserted into golden rice.

  1. ^ Toth, Ian K.; Bell, Kenneth S.; Holeva, Maria C.; Birch, Paul R. J. (1 January 2003). "Soft rot erwiniae: from genes to genomes". Molecular Plant Pathology. 4 (1): 17–30. doi:10.1046/j.1364-3703.2003.00149.x. PMID 20569359.
  2. ^ Jacquemyn, Hans; Lenaerts, Marijke; Tyteca, Daniel; Lievens, Bart (2013-08-01). "Microbial diversity in the floral nectar of seven Epipactis (Orchidaceae) species". MicrobiologyOpen. 2 (4): 644–658. doi:10.1002/mbo3.103. ISSN 2045-8827. PMC 3948608. PMID 23836678.
  3. ^ Marín, F.; Santos, M.; Carretero, F.; Yau, J. A.; Diánez, F. (2011-11-01). "Erwinia aphidicola isolated from commercial bean seeds (Phaseolus vulgaris)". Phytoparasitica. 39 (5): 483. doi:10.1007/s12600-011-0190-4. ISSN 0334-2123. S2CID 564578.
  4. ^ Huang HC, Hsieh TF, Erickson RS (2003). "Biology and Epidemiology of Erwinia rhapontici, Causal Agent of Pink Seed and Crown Rot of Plants" (PDF). Plant Pathology Bulletin. 12: 69–76. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  5. ^ Huang, H.C.; Phillippe, L.M.; Phillippe, R.C. (1990). "Pink seed of pea: a new disease caused by Erwinia rhapontici". Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology. 12 (4): 445–448. doi:10.1080/07060669009500990.