Soil-borne pathogen that infects economically important agricultural crops. Ralstonia solanacearum UW551

Ralstonia solanacearum strain UW551. This strain (UW551; Race 3 Biovar 2; R3B2) are a clonal group that are cold-tolerant and are capable of infecting crops in temperate climates. The economic threat to the agricultural industry is such that R3B2 strains are listed as Select Agents in the United States and are quarantined pathogens in Europe and Canada. This particular strain was isolated in Wisconsin from a wilted geranium that had been imported from Kenya. It is pathogenic on both tomato and potato plants. The genome of this organism is being examined in particular for pathogenic factors and cold-tolerance genes. These include: (1) the hypersensitive response and pathogenicity (hrp) genes that are part of the Type III secretion system, (2) genes carrying PIP (plant inducible promoter) boxes, (3) genes encoding hydrolytic enzymes, (4) type II secretion genes, (5) genes that are known to be up-regulanted during plant infection by IVET analysis, (6) flagellar genes, (7) type IV and tight adherence pilus genes, (8) efflux pump genes, (9) TAT (twin-arginine translocase) genes, and (10) extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) genes.