MicroTom - A Model Plant System to Study Bacterial Wilt by Ralstonia solanacearum

MicroTom is a miniature tomato plants with various properties that make it as a model system for experiments in plant molecular biology. To extend its utility as a model plant to study a plant - bacterial wilt system, we investigated the potential of the MicroTom as a host plant of bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. We compared the disease progress on standard tomato and MicroTom by two inoculation methods, root dipping and soil drenching, using a race 1 strain GMI1000. Both methods caused the severe wilting on MicroTom comparable to commercial tomato plant, although initial disease development was faster in root dipping. From the diseased MicroTom plants, the same bacteria were successfully reisolated using semiselective media to fulfill Koch's postulates. Race specific and isolate specific virulence were investigated by root dipping with 10 isolates of R. solanacearum isolated from tomato and potato plants. All of the tested isolates caused the typical wilt symptom on MicroTom. Disease severities by isolates of race 3 was below 50 % until 15 days after inoculation, while those by isolates of race 1 reached over 50% to death until 15 days. This result suggested that MicroTom can be a model host plant to study R. solanacearum - plant interaction.