DIFFERENTIATION OF PHYTOPATHOGENIC PSEUDOMONAS AND XANTHOMONAS SPECIES AND PATHOVARS BY NUMERICAL TAXONOMY AND PROTEIN GEL ELECTROPHOREGRAMS

The applicability of numerical analysis of polyacrylamide gel electrophoregrams of whole cell protein extracts for the classification and rapid identification of phytopathogenic Pseudomonas and Xanthomonas species and pathovars was investigated and compared with numerical analysis of classical phenotypic features. It is concluded that electrophoresis of the total soluble proteins of the bacterial cell is a powerful, rapid and relatively easy method, applicable to everyday use, for the differentiation of phytopathogenic pseudomonads and xanthomonads up to a sub-specific level. Results correlated to a high degree with the clustering obtained from classical phenotypic features. On the basis of this study several taxonomic proposals, concerning this group of organisms, are made. © 1990, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart · New York. All rights reserved.