Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Agrobacterium tumefaciens isolated from different host plant

During 2008-2011 growing season, 148 infected plant samples, showing tumor (gall) symptom, were collected from ten different host plants in 4 different province of Turkey. Total of 174 bacterial isolates were obtained from infected samples. Pathogenicity tests were conducted on carrot (Daucus carota L.) slice, kalonche (Kalanchoe daigremontiana), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annus L.) seedlings. From pathogenicity tests, 414 isolates were re-isolated and total of 138 bacterial re-isolates were selected and used in further studies. All these selected isolates were identified as Agrobacterium tumefaciens according to classical and molecular identification tests. Although all 138 isolates caused typical galls on kalonche and carrot slices, 67 isolates on tomato and 61 isolates on sunflower seedlings were failed to cause typical gall symptoms. Apart from three isolates, no major differences were observed among the bacterial isolates tested according to morphological, physiological and biochemical tests. Among 138 isolates, 48 bacterial isolates were selected and their genetic profiles were analyzed by using REP PCR, ERIC PCR, BOX PCR and RFLP techniques. As far as we know, peach, plum, cherry, pear, persimmon, oak and kalonchoe from the plants in our country, the presence of these factors has been demonstrated in this study for the first time. This study clearly showed the differences and similarities of the bacterial isolates of grobacterium tumefaciens obtained from different host plants. As a result, 34 genotypes in 5 main group and 8 different clusters, 26 unique profiles were determined. With isolates of different host plants and geographic areas can be concluded that the relationship between the genotyped.