A whole genome analysis reveals the presence of a plant PR1 sequence in the potato pathogen Streptomyces scabies and other Streptomyces species.

Streptomyces scabies is a common soil bacterium that causes scab symptoms in potatoes. Strong evidence indicates horizontal gene transfer (HGT) among bacteria has influenced the evolution of this plant pathogen and other Streptomyces spp. To extend the study of the HGT to the Streptomyces genus, we explored the effects of the inter-domain HGT in the S. scabies genome. We employed a semi-automatic pipeline based on BLASTp searches and phylogenetic reconstruction. The data show low impact of inter-domain HGT in the S. scabies genome; however, we found a putative plant pathogenesis related 1 (PR1) sequence in the genome of S. scabies and other species of the genus. It is possible that this gene could be used by S. scabies to out-compete other soil organisms.