Molecular characterization ofPseudomonas syringae pv.tomato isolates from Tanzania

Bacterial speck caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato is an emerging disease of tomato in Tanzania. Following reports of outbreaks of the disease in many locations in Tanzania, 56 isolates of P. syringae pv. tomato were collected from four tomato- producing areas and characterized using pathogenicity assays on tomato, carbon source utilization by the Biolog Microplate system, polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. All the P. syringae pv. tomato isolates produced bacterial speck symptoms on susceptible tomato (cv. ‘Tanya’) seedlings. Metabolic fingerprinting profiles revealed diversity among the isolates, forming several clusters. Some geographic differentiation was observed in principal component analysis, with isolates from Arusha region being more diverse than those from Iringa and Morogoro regions. The Biolog system was efficient in the identification of the isolates to the species level, as 53 of the 56 (94.6%) isolates of P. syringae pv. tomato were identified as Pseudomonas syringae . However, only 23 isolates out of the 56 (41.1%) were identified as Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato . The results of this work indicate the existence of P. syringae pv. tomato isolates in Tanzania that differ significantly from those used to create the Biolog database. RFLP analysis showed that the isolates were highly conserved in their hrpZ gene. The low level of genomic diversity within the pathogen in Tanzania shows that there is a possibility to use resistant tomato varieties as part of an effective integrated bacterial speck management plan.