Erwinia mallotivora is the causal agent of papaya bacterial crown rot disease in Lampung Timur, Indonesia

Sixteen bacterial strains showing oval, convex with a white colony colour were obtained from the water-soaked lesions on the petioles and leaves of infected papaya (cv. calina) collected from a papaya field in Lampung Timur, Indonesia. The pathogenicity test showed that all the strains produced the same symptoms with those found in the field. Four representative strains were then chosen for further investigation. The phenotypic characteristics revealed that the strains resembled Erwinia mallotivora. Two representative strains were further identified using a 16SrDNA sequence analysis. The result showed that the strains were placed within the group of the type strain and the reference strains of E. mallotivora. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first finding of E. mallotivora as the causal agent of papaya crown rot disease in Indonesia. Among the sixteen plants used for the host range test, the symptom was only observed on eggplants, but not on the other fifteen plant species.