Taxonomy of Corynebacterium Plant Pathogens, Including a New Pathogen of Wheat, Based on Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis of Cellular Proteins

Abstract

The known extant plant pathogenic Corynebacterium spp. were analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of their cellular proteins. The patterns of the protein bands of 13 species and a new corynebacterial wheat pathogen showed 7 distinct groups. Five of these groups consisted of only 1 species each, 1 group contained 4 species and the last group contained the new wheat pathogen and the remaining 4 species. The pathogens that could not be distinguished by the polyacrylamide gel analysis differed in phenotypic characteristics, including pathogenic specificity. For these bacteria recognition of the following taxa is proposed: C. fascians (Tilford) Dowson, C. ilicis (Mandel et al.), C. tritici (ex Hutchinson) nom. rev. [revised name], C. iranicum (ex Scharif) nom. rev., C. rathayi (Smith) Dowson, C. flaccumfaciens ssp. flaccumfaciens (Hedges) Dowson, C. flaccumfaciens ssp. poinsettiae (Starr and Pirone) comb. nov., C. flaccumfaciens ssp. betae (Keyworth et al.) comb. nov., C. flaccumfaciens ssp. oortii (Saaltink and Maas Geesteranus) comb. nov., C. michiganense ssp. michiganense (Smith) Jensen, C. michiganense ssp. nebraskense (Schuster et al.) comb. nov., C. michiganense ssp. insidiosum (McCulloch) comb. nov., C. michiganense ssp. sepedonicum, (Spieckermann and Kotthoff) comb. nov. and C. michiganense ssp. tessellarius ssp. nov., the type strain of which is strain 78181 (= ATCC 33566 = PDDCC 7221).