Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica and Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora can cause substantial damage to economically important plant crops and stored products. The occurrence of the disease and the scale of the damage are temperature dependent. Disease development consists first of active multiplication of the bacteria in the infection area and then production of numerous extracellular enzymes. We investigated the effects of various temperatures on these two steps. We assayed the specific growth rate and the pectate lyase and protease activities for eight strains belonging to E. carotovora subsp. atroseptica and E. carotovora subsp. carotovora in vitro. The temperature effect on growth rate and on pectate lyase activity is different for the two subspecies, but protease activity appears to be similarly thermoregulated. Our results are in agreement with ecological data implicating E. carotovora subsp. atroseptica in disease when the temperature is below 20 degrees C. The optimal temperature for pathogenicity appears to be different from the optimal growth temperature but seems to be a compromise between this temperature and temperatures at which lytic activities are maximal.
The CT1 mutant of Penicillium occitanis hyperproduces extracellular pectinases constitutively since it secretes pectinases even on glucose-containing medium. We show here that all other hydrolytic enzymes remain at low activities in CT1, confirming the specificity of the regulatory mutation towards pectinases. We isolated, by RT-PCR and through the construction of a cDNA library, three fragments coding for: a pectin lyase (pnl1), a polygalacturonase (pga1) and a pectate lyase (pal1). These fragments were used as probes in Northern blots analysis of the wild type strain CL100 and the CT1 mutant of P. occitanis grown in three culture conditions. The CT1 mutant showed a very high amount of pnl1, pga1 and pal1 mRNA either in pectin, glucose or glycerol grown cells while in the wild type CL100 strain, all transcripts were undetectable even on pectin. These results suggest that the CT1 mutation affects a trans-regulatory transcriptional factor regulating pectinase expression.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.