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Curtobacterium, A Foliar Pathogen Isolated from Maize in Central Argentina

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Abstract

Plant pathogens, such as fungi, bacteria, and viruses, can cause serious damage to crops and significantly reduce yield and quality. Bacterial diseases of agronomic crops, however, have been little studied. The present study aims to isolate and identify bacteria recovered from symptomatic maize (Zea mays) leaves collected from field samples in the province of Cordoba, Argentina. Bacterial strains were identified using whole-cell matrix-assisted laser-desorption-ionization–time-off light mass spectrometry and 16S rDNA sequencing. Members of the genera Exiguobacterium and Curtobacterium were dominant in the studied vegetal material. Two strains (RC18-1/2 and RC18-3/1) were selected for further studies. The pathogenicity test showed that plants inoculated with Curtobacterium sp. RC18-1/2 exhibited the same symptoms as those previously detected in the field. To our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence about the isolation of a Curtobacterium pathogenic strain in maize. Effective crop disease management will require the use of integrated strategies, such as resistant cultivars and/or biocontrol agents.

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Data Availability

All phylogeny data are based on accession numbers which are available in Genbank of NCBI database.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto and CONICET for financial support. M. Balzarini, A. Lagares and S. Fischer are members of the Scientific Researcher Career−CONICET. N. Bonamico is Scientific Researcher of UNRC. V. López-Ramírez, M. Ruíz, E. Rossi and N. Zuber are fellows of CONICET.

Funding

This research was supported by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT 0850/16, 2898/19), Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica de la Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (Res. 083/2020). CONICET-PUE (22920200100006CO and 22920180100064).

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Author notes

  1. Viviana López-Ramírez and Marcos Ruíz authors contributed equally to the research.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Agrobiotecnológicas (INIAB), Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto (UNRC)—CONICET, Agencia Postal No. 3, X580BYA, Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina

    Viviana López-Ramírez, Marcos Ruíz, Ezequiel Rossi, Natalia Bonamico & Sonia Fischer

  2. Instituto de Biotecnología y Biología Molecular (IBBM), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) - CONICET, CCT-La Plata, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, UNLP, La Plata, Argentina

    Nicolás Zuber & Antonio Lagares

  3. Unidad de Fitopatología y Modelización Agrícola UFYMA—CONICET, Instituto de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Córdoba, Argentina

    Mónica Balzarini

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  1. Viviana López-Ramírez
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Contributions

VLR, MR, ER, and NZ conceived and performed the experiments. AL, MB, NB, and SF designed the experiments. VLR and SF wrote the manuscript. All authors read, corrected, and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sonia Fischer.

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López-Ramírez, V., Ruíz, M., Rossi, E. et al. Curtobacterium, A Foliar Pathogen Isolated from Maize in Central Argentina. Curr Microbiol 79, 261 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-022-02953-y

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