First Report of Ralstonia (Pseudomonas) solanacearum Infecting Pot Anthurium Production in Florida.

Xanthomonas campestris pv. dieffenbachiae is a common pathogen of pot anthurium production in Florida. While X. campestris pv. dieffenbachiae was isolated from systematically infected plants with chlorotic, necrotic, and wilted leaves, a fluidal, beige bacteria was occasionally isolated on nutrient agar (Difco, Detroit, MI), as opposed to the common, yellow pigmented Xanthomonas sp. Distinction in the symptomology of plants systematically infected with a Xanthomonas sp. or this new bacterium could not be made. Three isolates were obtained of this unidentified bacterium from leaves and stems of three separate plants. With FAME (fatty acid methyl esters) analysis, using MIDI (Microbial Identification System, software version TSBA 3.90 [Newark, DE]), these isolates were classified as Ralstonia (Pseudomonas) solanacearum (syn. Burkholderia solanacearum) with a mean similarity indice of 0.895. Isolates were found to be gram negative, oxidase negative, catalase positive, motile, strictly aerobic, and metabolically classified as biovar 1; they accumulated poly-β-hydroxybutyrate and produced a hypersensitive response on tobacco within 24 h. A characteristic fluidal, white growth with a distinctive, red, swirling, egg-shaped, pigmentation pattern was observed on triphenyltetrazolium chloride medium. Further confirmation of identity as R. solanacearum was obtained by polymerase chain reaction amplification and electrophoretic analysis with species-specific primers (2), which in all cases produced a 148-bp product along with control strains. The three isolates were inoculated onto three plants of anthurium, tomato, triploid banana, and pothos. Inoculations were done at least twice; plants were inoculated either by stabbing the plant stems with a needle dipped in a suspension of bacteria or by applying 10 ml of a 1 × 10⁸ CFU/ml suspension to the soil of the test plants. Chlorosis, necrosis, and wilt symptoms appeared within 2 weeks on all plant species tested. Recently, pothos (Epipremnum aureum) cuttings imported to Florida from Costa Rica have been implicated as a source of R. solanacearum (1). Imported cuttings of pothos were being grown in hanging baskets over the infected anthuriums. Although no R. solanacearum infections were detected in the pothos, these imported plants are the probable source of the initial inoculum for this disease outbreak on anthuriums. References: (1) D. J. Norman and J. M. F. Yuen. Phytopathology 87:S70, 1997. (2) S. E. Seal et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 58:3751, 1992.