Fire blight resistance, irrigation and conducive wet weather improve Erwinia amylovora winter survival in cankers.

ABSTRACT: Erwinia amylovora causes fire blight, a disease responsible for enormous economic losses in the pome fruit-producing areas where it is present. Despite the abundant research on fire blight, information about E. amylovora population dynamics and survival in fire blight cankers and the plant defense responses to this pathogen in the infected bark are limited. In our study, we obtained fire blight cankers in apple, pear, and Asian pear cultivars showing differing resistance to the disease by shoot inoculation with E. amylovora. We collected cankers from irrigated and non-irrigated trees every 3 months in two independent field experiments and analyzed samples by viability digital PCR. We also assessed the expression of pathogenicity-related (PR) genes in the bark of

SUBMITTER: Santander RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9623323 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature