Erwinia tracheiphila Genome sequencing and assembly

Erwinia tracheiphila is an economically important plant pathogen of curcurbits (squashes, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons) transmitted by striped cucumber beetles. Once infected, bacteria multiply within the xylem, eventually blocking the vascular system and causing leaves and other tissues to wilt (a condition referred to as bacterial wilt). There are currently no treatments available for infected plants and very few cultivars display resistance to this pathogen. Delineating plant-vector-pathogen interactions at the molecular level are paramount to circumventing disease and developing resistant cultivars and genome sequence is the first step to unraveling how this pathogen is able to evade host plant defenses and invade host tissues.