غلام خداکرمیان

Pectobacterium wasabiae is one of the pectolytic erwinias that belongs to carotovora group. Thias bacterium produces pectolytic enzymes which causes so ft rot di sease in plant tissues especially in fl eshy plants. P. wasabiae has been reported for first time from was abi and recently from potato. During summer 2012 some stores of bell pepper with suspicious soft rot symptoms were co ll ected from east Azarbaijan province and causal bacterial agent of the di sease were isolated by culturing on NA medium. All of th e isolated bacterial strains were rod-shaped, facultati vely anaerobios, motile by means of peritrichus flagella, rotted potato tuber slices and pit formati on and catalase positive. They produced acid from trehalose and cell obiose, were negative in gram reaction, oxidase, starch hydrolase, sensitivity to tetracycline, hypersensitive response on Geranium leaves, production of lecithinase, reducing sugars from sucrose, growth at 37°C, acid produced from a-metbylglucosi dase, melibiose, raffinose, sorbitol, lactose, mal to se and malonate utilization. The cell proteins electerophoretic pattern of the tested isolates was similar to Pee isolates. However, thei.r phenotypic features were different from Pee. Amplifi cation and sequencin g of l 6S rDNA gene were done by PCCSSF and PCCSSR primers and results showed high similarity toP. wasabiae. This is the first report of P. wasabiae from bell pepper in Iran.