Etiology of bacterial canker on young sweet cherry trees in Serbia

Abstract

Bacterial canker of sweet cherries caused by Pseudomonas syringae was studied in the Vojvodina Province (region of Serbia) with the aim of better understanding disease etiology and epidemiology. During the last decade, bacterial canker has become a recurrent problem, especially in young plantations characterized by intensive production and lack of effective control measures. Among the 24 isolates collected from two localities (Selenc. a and Gornji Tavankut), classical bacteriology tests, pathogenicity, as well as genetic methods based on PCR for syrB gene and DNA sequencing with four housekeeping genes (MLSA), were performed allowing identification of 10 isolates as P. syringae pv. syringae and 14 isolates as P. syringae pv. morsprunorum race 1. In both pathovars, genetic groups were homogenous, confirming earlier research findings and contributing to the extant knowledge of its geographic distribution.