Background: In recent years, the damage caused by bacterial pathogens to major crops has been increasing worldwide. Pseudomonas syringae is a widespread bacterial species that infects almost all major crops. Different P. syringae strains use a wide range of biochemical mechanisms, including phytotoxins and effectors of the type III and type IV secretion systems, which determine the specific nature of the pathogen virulence.
Results: Strains 1845 (isolated from dicots) and 2507 (isolated from monocots) were selected for sequencing because they specialize on different groups of plants. We compared virulence factors in these and other available genomes of phylogroup 2 to find genes responsible for the specialization of bacteria. We showed that strain 1845 belongs to the clonal group that has been infecting monocots in Russia and USA for a long time (at least 50 years). Strain 1845 has relatively recently changed its host plant to dicots.
Conclusions: The results obtained by comparing the strain 1845 genome with the genomes of bacteria infecting monocots can help to identify the genes that define specific nature of the virulence of P. syringae strains.
Keywords: Core genome; Dicots; Monocots; Pan-genome; Pseudomonas syringae; T3SS; Virulence factors.