Diversity and Evolution of the Phenazine Biosynthesis Pathway

ABSTRACT Phenazines are versatile secondary metabolites of bacterial origin that function in biological control of plant pathogens and contribute to the ecological fitness and pathogenicity of the producing strains. In this study, we employed a collection of 94 strains having various geographic, environmental, and clinical origins to study the distribution and evolution of phenazine genes in members of the genera Pseudomonas , Burkholderia , Pectobacterium , Brevibacterium , and Streptomyces . Our results confirmed the diversity of phenazine producers and revealed that most of them appear to be soil-dwelling and/or plant-associated species. Genome analyses and comparisons of phylogenies inf…

Defense Responses of Fusarium oxysporum to 2,4-Diacetylphloroglucinol, a Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens

A collection of 76 plant-pathogenic and 41 saprophytic Fusarium oxysporum strains was screened for sensitivity to 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2,4-DAPG), a broad-spectrum antibiotic produced by multiple strains of antagonistic Pseudomonas fluorescens. Approximately 17% of the F. oxysporum strains were relatively tolerant to high 2,4-DAPG concentrations. Tolerance to 2,4-DAPG did not correlate with the geographic origin of the strains, formae speciales, intergenic spacer (IGS) group, or fusaric acid production levels. Biochemical analysis showed that 18 of 20 tolerant F. oxysporum strains were capable of metabolizing 2,4-DAPG. For two tolerant strains, analysis by mass spectrometry indicated…

Phenazine antibiotics produced by fluorescent pseudomonads contribute to natural soil suppressiveness to Fusarium wilt

Natural disease-suppressive soils provide an untapped resource for the discovery of novel beneficial microorganisms and traits. For most suppressive soils, however, the consortia of microorganisms and mechanisms involved in pathogen control are unknown. To date, soil suppressiveness to Fusarium wilt disease has been ascribed to carbon and iron competition between pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum and resident non-pathogenic F. oxysporum and fluorescent pseudomonads. In this study, the role of bacterial antibiosis in Fusarium wilt suppressiveness was assessed by comparing the densities, diversity and activity of fluorescent Pseudomonas species producing 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) (phlD+) …

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Insect pathogenicity in plant-beneficial pseudomonads: phylogenetic distribution and comparative genomics

Bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas occupy diverse environments. The Pseudomonas fluorescens group is particularly well-known for its plant-beneficial properties including pathogen suppression. Recent observations that some strains of this group also cause lethal infections in insect larvae, however, point to a more versatile ecology of these bacteria. We show that 26 P. fluorescens group strains, isolated from three continents and covering three phylogenetically distinct sub-clades, exhibited different activities toward lepidopteran larvae, ranging from lethal to avirulent. All strains of sub-clade 1, which includes Pseudomonas chlororaphis and Pseudomonas protegens, were highly insecticidal…

Antibiosis as a possible mechanism of soil suppressiveness to Fusarium wilts