Bacterial pathogens of plants are increasing in importance worldwide, particularly where rainfall events are increasing in number and intensity. However, bacterial pathogens can be tricky to to identify. Professor Sally Miller and her students Anna Testen, Claudio Vrisman and Ferdous Elahi provided lectures and lab exercises focused on isolation and identification of the major genera of plant pathogenic bacteria. These included the Gram-negative Pseudomonas, Xanthomonas, Ralstonia, Pectobacterium, Erwinia, Pantoea, and Agrobacterium, and the Gram-positive Clavibacter and Bacillus, as well as phytoplasmas.
Participants evaluated colony morphology on various media, and practiced microscopic visualization of bacterial streaming, plant tests of virulence including the hypersensitive response (HR) and soft rot tests, KOH test for Gram reaction, and LOPAT, among others.