Emigration of the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae from leaf litter contributes to its population dynamics in alpine snowpacke mi_2680 2099..2112

The recently discovered ubiquity of the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae in headwaters and alpine ecosystems worldwide elicits new questions about the ecology of this bacterium and subsequent consequences for disease epidemiology. Because of the major contribution of snow to river runoff during c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inEnvironmental microbiology Vol. 14; no. 8; pp. 2099 - 2112
Main Authors Monteil, Caroline, Guilbaud, Caroline, Glaux, Catherine, Lafolie, Francois, Soubeyrand, Samuel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Society for Applied Microbiology and Wiley-Blackwell 2012
Subjects
Bacteriology
Environmental Sciences
Life Sciences
Microbiology and Parasitology
SYRINGOMYCIN
NON-AGRICULTURAL HABITATS
GENETIQUE DES POPULATIONS
LITTER
QUANTIFICATION
PHENOTYPE
ALPINE GRASS
ICE-NUCLEATION
VIRULENCE
PSEUDOMONAS SYRINGAE
SNOWFALL
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The recently discovered ubiquity of the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae in headwaters and alpine ecosystems worldwide elicits new questions about the ecology of this bacterium and subsequent consequences for disease epidemiology. Because of the major contribution of snow to river runoff during crop growth, we evaluated the population dynamics of P. syringae in snowpack and the underlying leaf litter during two years in the Southern French Alps. High population densities of P. syringae were found on alpine grasses, and leaf litter was identified as the main source of populations of P. syringae in snow-pack, contributing more than the populations arriving with the snowfall. The insulating properties of snow foster survival of P. syringae throughout the winter in the 10 cm layer of snow closest to the soil. Litter and snowpack harboured populations of P. syringae that were very diverse in terms of phenotypes and genotypes. Neither substrate nor sampling site had a marked effect on the structure of P. syringae populations , and snow and litter had genotypes in common with other non-agricultural habitats and with crops. These results contribute to the mounting evidence that a highly diverse P. syringae metapopulation is disseminated throughout drainage basins between cultivated and non-cultivated zones.
ISSN:1462-2912
1462-2920
DOI:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02680.x