Identification and pathogenicity of bacteria isolated from pome fruit trees in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey

Bacteria including possible pathogenic and non-pathogenic species were isolated from pome fruits grown in five different provinces of the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey during the springs 1999, 2000 and 2001. A total of 324 bacterial strains belonging to 76 species in 36 genera were identified by using Sherlock Microbial Identification System (MIS). The most abundant bacterial species was Erwinia amylovora (16.9%), followed by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae (16.6%), P. agglomerans (11.7%), Bacillus pumilus (10.8%), Enterobacter intermedius (7.7%), Alcaligenes piechaudii (5.8%), Leclercia adecarboxylata (4%) and 69 other species (26.5%). Eighty-two of the strains from 12 different species are potential pathogens because they were hypersensitive response (HR) positive and infected Golden Delicious apple leaves. This is the first study to show that A. piechaudii, B. pumilus, Chromobacterium violaceum, E. intermedius, Erwinia rhapontici, Pantoea agglomerans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas huttiensis, Pseudomonas cichorii and Pseudomonas putida are possible foliar pathogens of pome fruits but, further in-depth testing will be needed to confirm these preliminary results. Possible pathogenic strains were characterized by fatty acid methyl ester profiles, metabolic fingerprints, serological and biochemical tests. However, discrepancies were found among identification results for some species. Our data therefore suggest that a single approach can not be adequate for the identification of plant pathogenic bacteria.