Soft Rot induced by Dickeya undicola in sweet potato from South America

In 2023 symptomatic sweet potato tubers from South America were intercepted at Schiphol airport, the Netherlands. The tubers showed maceration of the cortex and vascular discoloration. Isolation, PCR analysis and Illumina sequencing revealed the presence of Dickeya undicola. Subsequent disease assays confirmed that this bacterium was the causal agent of the symptoms. To our knowledge this is the first report of this pathogen on sweet potato. Additional disease assays showed that this pathogen can also cause damage on potato (Solanum tuberosum).