Ratoon stunting disease (RSD) host-pathogen relationships in sugarcane : SRDC final report BS99S

Abstract

Clavibacter xyli subsp. xyli (Cxx) is a gram +, fastidious, slow growing bacterium that causes ratoon stunting disease (RSD) of sugarcane. Because of its fastidious nature, slow growth, and poor symptom expression, it has traditionally been put into the 'too hard basket' by molecular plant pathologists. Systems for transformationa nd transposon-based mutagenesis of Cxx have been successfully established. In addition, a very sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based detection system was developed for Cxx so that as few as 100 cells per reaction can be detected in the xylem extracts from Cxx infected plants.