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Review
. 2015 Jun 5;16(6):12836-54.
doi: 10.3390/ijms160612836.

Virulence Factors of Erwinia amylovora: A Review

Affiliations
Review

Virulence Factors of Erwinia amylovora: A Review

Núria Piqué et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Erwinia amylovora, a Gram negative bacteria of the Enterobacteriaceae family, is the causal agent of fire blight, a devastating plant disease affecting a wide range of host species within Rosaceae and a major global threat to commercial apple and pear production. Among the limited number of control options currently available, prophylactic application of antibiotics during the bloom period appears the most effective. Pathogen cells enter plants through the nectarthodes of flowers and other natural openings, such as wounds, and are capable of rapid movement within plants and the establishment of systemic infections. Many virulence determinants of E. amylovora have been characterized, including the Type III secretion system (T3SS), the exopolysaccharide (EPS) amylovoran, biofilm formation, and motility. To successfully establish an infection, E. amylovora uses a complex regulatory network to sense the relevant environmental signals and coordinate the expression of early and late stage virulence factors involving two component signal transduction systems, bis-(3'-5')-cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP) and quorum sensing. The LPS biosynthetic gene cluster is one of the relatively few genetic differences observed between Rubus- and Spiraeoideae-infecting genotypes of E. amylovora. Other differential factors, such as the presence and composition of an integrative conjugative element associated with the Hrp T3SS (hrp genes encoding the T3SS apparatus), have been recently described. In the present review, we present the recent findings on virulence factors research, focusing on their role in bacterial pathogenesis and indicating other virulence factors that deserve future research to characterize them.

Keywords: Erwinia amylovora; amylovoran; biofilms; exopolysaccharide; fire blight; motility; plant pathogenesis; quorum sensing; type III secretion system; virulence factors.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the T3SS from plant pathogenic bacteria [39] (modified from [39], with permission from American Society of Plant Biologists).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Images of putative attachment structures of E. amylovora [19] (adapted from [19], with permission from American Society for Microbiology). (A) TEM imaging of a planktonic E. amylovora cell grown in broth culture and negatively stained. Peritrichous flagella are indicated by arrows (scale: 1 µm); (B) TEM image of E. amylovora in planta. Putative attachment structures connect bacterial cells to host cells (scale: 1 µm); (C) SEM image of E. amylovora cells found within a biofilm, with multiple appendages that protrude from the bacterial cell and attach to the host surface, as indicated by the arrows (scale: 2 µm).

References

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