Coronatine production by Pseudomonas syringae pathovars: Screening method and capacity of product formation

Abstract The hypertrophy of potato tuber tissue caused by coronatine could be developed into a semiquantitative screening method. A correlation between coronatine concentration and hypertrophy was demonstrated. 53 strains of P. syringae pv. glycinea and 9 strains of P. syringae pv. tomato were tested for coronatine production using this method. 24 of the investigated Pseudomonas syringae pv. glycinea strains failed to produce detectable amounts of coronatine. The remaining 29 produced coronatine in various quantities. The yields of these strains differed in orders of magnitude. The strains of P. syringae pv. tomato showed an analogous behaviour. It is assumed that coronatine is a virulence factor, which is of importance for the severing of plant diseases, implicated in the establishment of the bacteria in the plant tissue.