Pantoea agglomerans causing blight disease on pepino melon (Solanum muricatum) in China

In January 2018, necrotic symptoms were observed on the leaves of pepino melon (Solanum muricatum) in Huizhou city, Guangdong province, China. A bacterium was isolated from the necrotic tissues of the diseased pepino melon plants. The bacterium caused the same symptoms in pepino melon leaves by artificial inoculation. The physiological and biochemical characteristics of eighteen yellow bacterial isolates were the same as those of Pantoea agglomerans strain ATCC27155. In addition, eighteen isolates formed a monophyletic clade with four P. agglomerans strains according to the phylogenetic analysis results of 16 S rRNA, gyrB, pyrG, fusA, leuS and rplB genes. The causal bacterium was identified as P. agglomerans based on the result of the biochemical characteristics, pathogenicity test and multilocus sequence analysis. This is the first record of leaf blight caused by P. agglomerans on pepino melon.