The Serological Heterogeneity of Pseudomonas syringae pv. atrofaciens Strains and Their Ecological Niches

The paper deals with a comparative analysis of the serological and ecological properties of Pseudomonas syringae pv. atrofaciens strains from the collections of microbial cultures at the Malkov Institute for Plant Genetic Resources and Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology. All of the strains from the Bulgarian collection, except for one, fall into five serogroups (II through VI) of the classification system of Pastushenko and Simonovich. The P. syringae pv. atrofaciens strains isolated from Bulgarian and Ukrainian wheats belong mainly to serogroups II and IV, respectively. The strains that were isolated from rye plants belong to serogroup I. The strains isolated from sorghum and Sudan grass belong to serogroups II, IV, and VI. Serogroup III includes the P. syringae pv. atrofaciens strains that were isolated from cereals in the United Kingdom but not in Ukraine.