A collection of 51 Xanthomonas campestris strains from throughout the world was studied to detect and assess genetic diversity among pathogens of small grains. Isolates from barley, bread wheat, bromegrass, canary grass, cassava, maize, orchard grass, rice, rough-stalked meadow grass, rye, timothy, and triticale were analyzed by pathogenicity tests on bread wheat cv. Alondra and barley cv. Corona, indirect immunofluorescence, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Three probes were used for the RFLP analysis. They were an acetylaminofluorene-labelled 16S+23S rRNA probe from Escherichia coli and two P-32-labelled restriction fragments from either plasmidic (pBSF2) or chromosomal (pBS8) DNA of X. campestris pv. manihotis. Strains clustered in 9 and 20 groups with the rRNA probe and the pBSF2 DNA probe, respectively. Strains of X. campestris pv. graminis, X. campestris pv. phleipratensis, and X. campestris pv. poae are shown to be related but are also distinguishable by RFLP patterns, serology, and pathogenicity on bread wheat. Strains pathogenic only for barley and not for wheat grouped together. Another group is temporarily designated deviant X, campestris pv. undulosa. These South American isolates from bread wheat did not react by indirect immunofluorescence and produced atypical lesions in pathogenicity tests. The results stress the need to perform pathogenicity tests before strains are named at the pathovar level. The importance of the different probes used for epidemiological studies or phylogenetic studies of closely related strains is underlined.
