Development of 14 minisatellite markers for the citrus canker bacterium, Xanthomonas citri pv. citri

We screened the genome of Xanthomonas citri pv. citri strain 306 for tandem repeats. A multiplex polymerase chain reaction protocol was used to assess the genetic diversity of 239 strains of X. citri pv. citri from Asia. The total number of alleles per locus ranged from three to 20. Using pooled data sets, 223 different haplotypes were identified. Successful amplifications were obtained at most loci for seven other X. citri pathovars. This typing scheme is expected to be useful at different spatial scales for population studies of pathovars of X. citri, several of which cause plant diseases of economic importance.