Pseudomonas syringae pathovar genomes

Plant pathogenic Pseudomonads are responsible for the loss of millions of pounds in crop revenue each year. Pseudomonads export effector molecules into the plants’ cells in order to supress immune responses such as the plant hypersensitive response (HR). The plants immune system can recognise certain effector molecules and trigger the HR preventing bacterial infection. Pseudomonads can evade HR by potentially gaining different effector molecules captured within integrons, mobile pieces of DNA that have the ability to capture and express genes. There are genes conserved within integrons that can be identified such as xerC and the UV damage repair operon rulAB appears to be a hotspot for integron insertion (Arnold et al., 2000). Using these features it has been possible to identify a number of integron-like elements (ILEs) within Pseudomonas syringae pathovars. Identification of these new ILEs will allow further study into their mechanisms and their effect on plant - microbe interactions.