Ralstonia solanacearum is a very destructive bacterial plant pathogen that causes wilt disease in solanaceae crops. To study the response of potato, tomato, eggplant and petunia to bacterial wilt disease, two isolates representing biovars 2A and 2T of R. solanacearum were evaluated for their pathogenicity aggressiveness and tobacco hypersensitivity response (HR) at two different temperature regimes. The response of plants was estimated by appearance of wilting symptoms and bacterial density in the xylems of inoculated plants over a four weeks period. The results indicated that isolates representing biovar 2T caused less disease in all the species and cultivars compared to isolates biovar 2A, at both temperature conditions and also, there were significant differences in susceptibility to biovars 2A and 2T of R. solanacearum among tomato, eggplant and petunia and potato cultivars.
Ralstonia solanacearum, a widespread bacterial plant pathogen in the post-genomic era
