Browsing by Author "Aho, Jenna"

In a previous study, Pectobacterium strains were isolated from rotten potato tubers and stems. Strains were identified as P. carotovorum subspecies carotovorum by their biochemical properties. In acnA gene sequence analysis the strains isolated from diseased potato stems were different from P. carotovorum subspecies carotovorum type strain and also from strains isolated from rotten potato tubers. However, the strains isolated from rotten potato stems were not able to cause typical blackleg symptoms, like rotting of stems, when inoculated in potato plants. The focus of this master’s thesis was to further study if the new strains are pathogenic in nature or whether they could have arrived to already rotten potato tissue as secondary infection. One goal was to find out if the strains can produce compounds that inhibit growth of known blackleg pathogens, and could they make already contaminated potatoes disease free in a field. This was tested in vitro as well as in a field trial with two potato varieties. As a result the strains isolated from stems were able to produce toxic compounds that inhibited the growth of several common soft rot and blackleg pathogens, whereas compounds produced by the strains isolated from tubers had no effect on the growth of the other bacteria. This suggests that the strains present in stems have properties that make it possible for them to spread from the environment to already infected stem lesions and compete with blackleg and soft rot bacteria already present in the tissue. Blackleg symptoms were absent during the field trial, but in some cases the inoculations caused soft rot of tubers and stunted growth of the inoculated plants. The two potato varieties used in the field trial, Rikea and Fontane, had a different response against the used strains. Although the in vitro results suggested that some of the strains that were originally isolated from stems could act as biological control agents, the results from the field trial contradicted this indicating that the strains might have pathogenic properties, which makes them unsuitable as biological control organisms.