Author(s)

Enrique G. Medrano^*, Alois A. Bell

United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, College Station, TX, USA.

Pantoea ananatis (Serrano) representatives are known to have a broad host range including both humans and plants. The cotton fleahopper (Pseudatomoscelis seriatus, Reuter) is a significant pest that causes cotton bud damage that may result in significant yield losses. In this study, a bacterial strain previously isolated from a fleahopper was tested for cotton infectivity using simulated insect feeding. In addition, cotton fleahoppers collected from the field were raised on green beans in the laboratory to test the insects’ capacity to vector cotton pathogens. Adult insects were then caged with greenhouse grown cotton buds. Buds that remained or abscised from the plants following feeding by the insect consistently showed necrosis of the ovary including the wall. A collection of bacterial isolates from both caged insects and diseased buds was analyzed using carbon utilization and enzyme production tests, fatty acid methyl ester profile analysis, and by cloning and sequencing 16S RNA genes. Results showed that the majority of the isolates were best classified as P. ananatis. Upon simulated fleahopper feeding (i.e., penetrative inoculation), the fleahopper isolate rotted cotton buds. These results indicated the fleahoppers are vectors of opportunistic P. ananatis strains causing loss of the cotton fruiting structures.

Bud Abscission, Opportunistic Pathogens, Gossypium hirsutum

Medrano, E. and Bell, A. (2017) An Opportunistic Pantoea sp. Isolated from a Cotton Fleahopper That Is Capable of Causing Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Bud Rot. Agricultural Sciences, 8, 64-76. doi: 10.4236/as.2017.81006.