Abstract
A new bacterial blight with halo was found on leaves of rye (Secale cereale L.) in Tsukuba, Japan in April 1998. The bacterium isolated from the lesions of the leaves was pathogenic to rye and oats, but not to rice. The causal bacterium was elucidated as a pathovar of Pseudomonas syringae on the basis of bacteriological properties. In addition, tabA-specific bands were detected from these isolates by PCR with tabA-specific primers. From these results, the causal bacterium was identified as Pseudomonas syringae pv. coronafaciens, and the name “bacterial halo blight” was proposed for the disease.
