Identification and establishment of genomic identity of Ralstonia solanacearum isolated from a wilted chilli plant at Tezpur, North East India

Abstract

The bacterial wilt disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is an ever-increasing threat to tropical as well as temperate regions of the world. Though the disease has been reported from different parts of India, appropriate identification of the pathogen at molecular level is still incomplete. In this study we report the isolation and molecular characterization of a R. solana- cearum strain F1C1 from wilted chilli plant collected from a field near Tezpur University, Assam, India, using techniques such as multiplex PCR, 16SrDNA sequencing, multilocus typing, pathogenicity test, twitching motility and natural transformation. Our results suggest that F1C1 is a phylotype-I strain of R. solanacearum species complex. Additionally, we also report presence of other bacterial species in the ooze collected from wilted plants.