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USE OF CELLULAR FATTY ACIDS IN THE CHARACTERIZATION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF BACTERIAL LEAF STREAK ATHOGENS ON MILLET

MUHAMMAD AYUB AND JOSEPH P. HlLL*

Abstract: Analyses of cellular fatty acids (FAs) were used to identify bacterial leaf streaking pathogen(s) infecting foxtail and pearl millet in Colorado, USA. Isolates from both hosts were identified as unknown pathovar(s) of Xanthomonas campestris. To detennine any similarity the most discriminatory FA profiles of the US isolates were compared with those of X. campestris. pv. pennamericanum infecting pearl millet in Africa and 11 other X. campestris pathovars infecting members of the Poaceae family. The US isolates were different from X. campestris. pv. pennamericanum and the other X. campestris pathovars but similar among themselves. When a dendogram of the millet isolates was constructed with 35 other X. campestris pathovars, the different nature of the US isolates was further clarified. However, this evidence was not enough to give the American isolates a separate pathovar status.

Agricultural Research Station, (North) Mingora, Swat, Pakistan.

Associate Professor of Plant Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, U.S.A.