Serological Specificity of Pseudomonas glumae, the Pathogenic Bacterium of Grain Rot Disease of Rice

Abstract

Serological specificity of Pseudomonas glumae, the pathogenic bacterium of grain rot disease of rice, was tested by means of the agglutination and agar gel diffusion methods using rabbit antisera prepared by injecting living whole cell suspension of Ps. glumae strains, Ku8101, N7505 and N7501. In agglutination method, the antisera were not completely specific to Ps. glumae but their titers obtained with the bacteria other than Ps. glumae were extremely low. Agar gel diffusion test indicated that serological specificity of Ps. glumae depended upon the kind of antisera used, viz., anti-N7501-serum prepared with living whole cells of the strain N7501 was completely specific for Ps. glumae producing no precipitin band with any bacteria other than Ps. glumae. The other two antisera also produced specific band with Ps. glumae strains, suggesting the existence of some antibodies specific to Ps. glumae in these antisera, but they also produced faint precipitin bands with many pseudomonads. When antigens heated at 100C for 1hr were used, all of the three antisera showed almost complete specificity to Ps. glumae in agar gel diffusion test.