Fire Blight The Disease and its Causative Agent, Erwinia amylovora Fire Blight The Disease and its Causative Agent, Erwinia amylovora Edited by Joël L. Vanneste HortResearch Hamilton New Zealand CABI Publishing CABI Publishingis a division of CAB International CABI Publishing CABI Publishing CAB International 10 E 40th Street Wallingford Suite 3203 Oxon OX10 8DE New York, NY 10016 UK USA Tel: +44 (0)1491 832111 Tel: +1 212 481 7018 Fax: +44 (0)1491 833508 Fax: +1 212 686 7993 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Web site: http://www.cabi.org © CABInternational2000. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying,recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fire blight : the disease and its causative agent, Erwinia amylovora / edited by J. Vanneste … [et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-85199-294-3 (alk. paper) 1. Fire-blight. 2. Erwinia amylovora--Control. I. Vanneste, J. (Joël) SB741.F6 F57 2000 632¢.32--dc21 00–022237 ISBN 0 85199 294 3 Typeset by Columns Design Ltd, Reading. Printed and bound in the UK by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn. Contents Contributors vii Preface ix Acknowledgements xi 1 What is Fire Blight? Who is Erwinia amylovora? How to Control It? 1 Joël L. Vanneste Part I: The Disease 7 2 Epidemiology of Fire Blight 9 Sherman V. Thomson 3 Distribution and Economic Importance of Fire Blight 37 W. Gordon Bonn and Tom van der Zwet 4 Genetic Diversity and Host Range of Erwinia amylovora 55 M. Timur Momol and Herb S. Aldwinckle 5 Migration ofErwinia amylovorain Host Plant Tissues 73 Joël L.Vanneste and Simon Eden-Green Part II: The Pathogen 85 6 Erwiniaamylovora:General Characteristics, Biochemistry and Serology 87 Jean-Pierre Paulin v vi Contents 7 Exopolysaccharides of Erwinia amylovora: Structure, Biosynthesis, Regulation, Role in Pathogenicity of Amylovoran and Levan 117 Klaus Geider 8 hrpGenes and Harpins of Erwinia amylovora: a Decade of Discovery 141 Jihyun F. Kim and Steven V. Beer 9 Disease-specific Genes of Erwinia amylovora: Keys to Understanding Pathogenesis and Potential Targets for Disease Control 163 Adam J. Bogdanove, Jihyun F. Kim and Steven V. Beer 10 Iron and Fire Blight: Role in Pathogenicity of Desferrioxamine E, the Main Siderophore ofErwinia amylovora 179 Dominique Expert, Alia Dellagi and Remy Kachadourian Part III: Control of Fire Blight 197 11 Chemical Control of Fire Blight 199 Peter G. Psallidas and John Tsiantos 12 The Development of Streptomycin-resistant Strains of Erwinia amylovora 235 Alan L. Jones and Elise L. Schnabel 13 Breeding for Resistance to Fire Blight 253 Yves Lespinasse and Herb S. Aldwinckle 14 Transgenic Varieties and Rootstocks Resistant to Fire Blight 275 John L. Norelli and Herb S. Aldwinckle 15 Fire Blight Risk Assessment Systems and Models 293 Eve Billing 16 Biological Control of Fire Blight 319 Kenneth B. Johnson and Virginia O. Stockwell 17 Integrated Orchard and Nursery Management for the Control of Fire Blight 339 Paul W. Steiner Index 359 Colour Plate Sectionend of Chapter 5 Contributors Herb S. AldwinckleDepartment of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, NY 14456-0462, USA Steven V. BeerDepartment of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA Eve Billing4 Fromandez Drive, Horsmonden, Tonbridge, Kent TN12 8LN, UK Adam J. BogdanoveBoyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA W. Gordon Bonn1035 Beals Street, Windsor, Ontario, NGE 4B7 Canada Alia DellagiLaboratoire de Pathologie Végétale, INRA-INA, Institut National Agronomique, 16 rue Claude Bernard, 75231 Paris, France Simon Eden-Green Natural Resources International, Chatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4TB, UK Dominique ExpertLaboratoire de Pathologie Végétale, INRA-INA, Institut National Agronomique, 16 rue Claude Bernard, 75231 Paris, France Klaus Geider Max-Planck-Institut für Zellbiologie, Rosenhof, D-68526Ladenburg, Germany Kenneth B. JohnsonDepartment of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-2902, USA Alan L. JonesDepartment of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA Remy KachadourianLaboratoire de Chimie Bioorganique et Bioinorganique, CNRS URA 1384, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France; present address: Department of Biochemistry, Nanaline H. Duke PO Box 3711, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA vii viii Contributors Jihyun F. KimDepartment of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA Yves Lespinasse INRA–CR d’Angers–Unité d’Amélioration des Espèces Fruitières et Ornementales, BP 57, 49071 Beaucouzé CEDEX, France M. Timur Momol Department of Plant Pathology, North Florida Research and Education Center, IFAS, University of Florida, Quincy, FL 32351, USA John L. NorelliDepartment of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, NY 14456, USA Jean-Pierre PaulinINRA, 42 rue Georges Morel, BP 57 49071, Beaucouzé CEDEX, France Peter G. Psallidas Benaki Phytopathological Institute, 85 Delta Street, Kiphissia, 14561 Athens, Greece Elise L. SchnabelDepartment of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA Paul W. Steiner Department of Natural Resource Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-4452, USA Virginia O. StockwellDepartment of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-2902, USA Sherman V. ThomsonDepartment of Biology, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-5305, USA John TsiantosNAGREF, Plant Protection Institute, 38001 Volos, Greece Tom van der Zwet United States Department of Agriculture, Appalachian Fruit Research Station, Kearneysville, WV 25430-9425, USA Joël L. VannesteHortResearch, Ruakura Research Centre, Private Bag 3123, Hamilton, New Zealand Preface This book is about fire blight, the most devastating bacterial disease of apples and pears. It is the first multi-authored book on fire blight, written by 25 inter- national experts, who critically reviewed the literature and shared their know- ledge and their experience on the disease, its causal agent and methods of control. Writing such a book was beyond the expertise of any one individual. It represents the most up-to-date information available, written by some of the most influential scientists working on fire blight today. Most chapters contain information unpublished so far. It is divided into three sections. The first section is about the disease: its epidemiology, its worldwide distribution and its eco- nomic importance, the host range of the pathogen and how it migrates and per- haps survives in the tissues. The second section is about the causal agent, Erwinia amylovora: its general characteristics as a member of the Enterobacteriaceae, but also the weapons it uses to cause disease: amylovoran, harpin, avirulence factors and siderophores. In the third section, the authors address the difficult problems of fire blight control. They look at chemical con- trol, problems associated with streptomycin resistance, potential and limitations of traditional breeding and transgenic plants, risk assessment systems and mod- els, biological control and finally integrated management strategies for the con- trol of fire blight in orchards and in nurseries. A reference book on fire blight has long been overdue. SinceFire Blight: A Bacterial Disease of Rosaceous Plants,written by Tom van der Zwet and Harry Keil in 1978, few review papers have dealt directly with fire blight. Furthermore, with few exceptions, they are restricted to a limited aspect of this disease. So, in spite of an impressive amount of work and an impressive amount of literature on fire blight, the newcomer or the interested scientist has nowhere to go to get a complete and up-to-date picture on this disease. I believe this book provides ix