Does the microbiome of arable soil influence development of blackleg and soft rot diseases caused by pectinolytic bacteria of the Dickeya and Pectobacterium genera?

Soft rot Pectobacteriaceae (SRP) of the genera Dickeya and Pectobacterium cause the symptoms of blackleg of potatoes and soft rot of potato, cabbage, corn and other economically important plants. It is extremely important from the epidemiological point of view that despite the noted high economic losses in crop production and the expanding range of SPR species, there are no effective plant protection measures against these pathogens. In the recent years, scientists started to suspect that disease symptoms in crops are related to the so-called suppressive soil. Scientists distinguish a suppressive and non-suppressive soil, whose microbiological composition inhibit or favors development of certain disease symptoms on the growing plant. Therefore, the aim of this project was to investigate whether the observable relation between the soil type and progression of the Dickeya and Pectobacterium spp. driven infections may be associated with the species composition of the soil microbiome.