First Report of Bacterial Wilt Caused by Ralstonia solanacearum in Ghana, West Africa.

Tomato and pepper plants exhibiting wilt symptoms were collected from fields in seven villages in Northern (Vea, Tono, Pwalugu), Ashanti (Agogo, Akumadan), and Brong Ahafo (Tanoso, Tuobodom) regions of western Ghana in November 2012. The plants were wilted without leaf yellowing or necrosis. Disease incidence was generally low, with less than 20% symptomatic plants observed. Most of the plants collected produced visible bacterial ooze in water in the field. Ooze was plated on 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride-amended (TZC) medium. Isolated colonies were fluidal, irregularly round, white with pink centers, gram-negative, and oxidase positive. One strain from each of seven fields was selected for further study. All strains induced a hypersensitive reaction on tobacco. Randomly selected strains SM855-12 and SM857-12 tested positive in R. solanacearum ImmunoStrip assays (Agdia Inc., IN). An end-point PCR assay with primer set 759/760 (3) generated an R. solanacearum-specific 280-bp amplicon for all seven strains. Two of these strains were biovar I and the remaining five were biovar III based on utilization of cellobiose, lactose, maltose, dulcitol, mannitol, and sorbitol. A phylotype-specific multiplex PCR assay that recognizes four geographically linked monophyletic groups within R. solanacearum (1) indicated that one strain (SM855-12) was phylotype III (African origin), whereas the other six were phylotype I (Asian origin). All strains were subjected to repetitive sequence-based PCR (Rep-PCR) with BOXA1R and REP1R/REP2 primers (4). Strain SM855-12 was grouped with the phylotype III reference strain UW 368 and the remaining six strains were grouped with the phylotype I reference strain GMI 1000. A pathogenicity test was performed with bacterial wilt-susceptible tomato line OH7814. Inoculum was prepared from 48-h cultures of strains SM855-12, SM856-12, and SM858-12 grown on casamino acid peptone glucose (CPG) medium at 30°C. Roots of ten 4-week-old tomato plants per strain were drench-inoculated with 5 ml of a 10⁸ CFU/ml bacterial suspension after wounding with a sterile scalpel. Non-inoculated control plants were drenched with 5 ml distilled water after root wounding. Plants were kept in a greenhouse at 25 to 30°C. By 12 days after inoculation, 80 to 100% of inoculated plants were wilted, whereas no symptoms appeared in non-inoculated plants. Bacteria re-isolated from wilted plants were confirmed to be R. solanacearum using techniques mentioned above. Although an association of bacterial wilt with tomato/pepper was mentioned previously (2), to our knowledge, this is the first documented report of bacterial wilt caused by R. solanacearum in Ghana. The presence of Asian strains (phylotype I) may be the result of one or more accidental introductions. Awareness of this disease in Ghana will lead to deployment of management strategies including use of resistant varieties and grafting desirable varieties onto disease-resistant rootstocks. References: (1) M. Fegan and P. Prior. Page 449 in Bacterial Wilt Disease and the Ralstonia solanacearum Species Complex. C. Allen et al., eds. American Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, MN, 2005. (2) K. A. Oduro. Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate of MOFA, Accra, Ghana, 2000. (3) N. Opina et al. Asia Pac. J. Mol. Biol. Biotechnol. 5:19, 1977. (4) J. Versalovic et al. Methods Mol. Cell Biol. 5:25, 1994.