Identifying virulence functions of xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae using transposons

Abstract

Xanthomonas ozyzae pathovar ozyzae (Xoo) is the causal agent of bacterial leaf blight, a serious disease of rice. It is a vascular pathogen, which grows in the xylem vessels and causes drying of infected leaves. Previously, mutations affecting extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) production, regulation of pathogenicity factor (rpf C), Hypersensitive Response and Pathogenicity (Hrp) genes, certain avirulence (avr) genes newlineand a few amino acid biosynthetic genes have been found to be associated with virulence deficiency. The aim of this study is to identify other virulence functions of Xoo using genetic and molecular biology newlinetechniques. Chapter 1 is a summary of bacterial virulence and has been divided into three parts. The first part deals with bacterial secretion systems, adhesins and effector molecules and their role in virulence.The second part deals with methodology for studying bacterial virulence functions and in the third part evolution of bacterial virulence with reference to the genomic organisation of virulence genes has been discussed.