Bacterial blotch of Agaricus bisporus has typically been identified as being caused by either Pseudomonas tolaasii (brown blotch) or Pseudomonas gingeri (ginger blotch). To address the relatedness of pseudomonads able to induce blotch, a pilot study was initiated in which pseudomonads were selectively isolated from mushroom farms throughout New Zealand. Thirty-three pseudomonad isolates were identified as being capable of causing different degrees of discoloration (separable into nine categories) of A. bisporus tissue in a bioassay. These isolates were also identified as unique using repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR and biochemical analysis. Relationships between these 33 blotch-causing organisms (BCO) and a further 22 selected pseudomonad species were inferred by phylogenetic analyses of near-full-length 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequences. The 33 BCO isolates were observed to be distributed throughout the Pseudomonas fluorescens intrageneric cluster. These results show that in addition to known BCO (P. tolaasii, P. gingeri, and Pseudomonas reactans), a number of diverse pseudomonad species also have the ability to cause blotch diseases with various discolorations. Furthermore, observation of ginger blotch discoloration of A. bisporus being independently caused by many different pseudomonad species impacts on the homogeneity and classification of the previously described P. gingeri.The genus Pseudomonas (sensu stricto) comprises a taxon of metabolically versatile organisms that are ubiquitous in soil and water and play an important role as plant, animal, and human pathogens (37). Microbial diversity in mushroom farms has previously been reported, with pseudomonads accounting for 10% of bacteria in compost and sometimes more than 50% of bacteria in casing soils (48).Discoloration of Agaricus bisporus caused by pathogenic pseudomonads, the so-called blotch diseases, are well documented. Pseudomonas tolaasii contamination results in sunken, dark brown lesions (35, 55); Pseudomonas reactans causes mild dark purple to light brown discoloration and a slight surface depression that becomes deeper and darker with age (59); while the pale yellowish red discoloration that develops into a reddish ginger-colored discoloration (ginger blotch disease) is characteristic of Pseudomonas gingeri (60).Of the blotch-causing pseudomonads, the best characterized is P. tolaasii. P. tolaasii enters the mushroom farm in peat and limestone used in the casing process (63), and, once present, P. tolaasii is able to attach to mycelial surfaces of developing A. bisporus (40, 42). Temperature and relative humidity have been suggested as important environmental conditions that influence the pathogenicity of P. tolaasii within the mushroom farm (50). A minimal application of 2.7 ϫ 10 6 to 10 8 CFU ⅐ ml Ϫ1 of P. tolaasii was reported as the threshold for inducing disease (34), although other thresholds have been proposed (31,44,62). Pathogenic P. tolaasii isolates synthesize a lowmolecular-weight extracellular toxin, tolaasin, that is the p...