It has been widely accepted that oxidation is a major cause of the degeneration of the exine layer of spore and pollen grain walls. Recently this factor has come into consideration regarding the fine structure of these walls (Afzelius, 1956). Afzelius demonstrated that oxidation may change a "granular laminated structure into an amorphous granular" one, the latter showing no additional effects ...

The pectinolytic enterobacterium Erwinia chrysanthemi 3937 causes a systemic disease in its natural host, the African violet (Saintpaulia: ionantha). It produces two structurally unrelated siderophores, chrysobactin and achromobactin. Chrysobactin makes a large contribution to invasive growth of the bacterium in its host. Insertion mutants of a chrysobactin-defective strain were constructed and...

Production of the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) is widespread among plant-associated microorganisms. The non-gall-forming phytopathogen Erwinia chrysanthemi 3937 (strain Ech3937) possesses iaaM (ASAP16562) and iaaH (ASAP16563) gene homologues. In this work, the null knockout iaaM mutant strain Ech138 was constructed. The IAA production by Ech138 was reduced in M9 minimal medium suppl...

Host cells respond to infection by generating nitric oxide (NO) as a cytotoxic weapon to facilitate killing of invading microbes. Bacterial flavohaemoglobins are well-known scavengers of NO and play a crucial role in protecting animal pathogens from nitrosative stress during infection. Erwinia chrysanthemi, which causes macerating diseases in a wide variety of plants, possesses a flavohaemoglob...

beta-1,4-Galactan is a major component of the ramified regions of pectin. Analysis of the genome of the plant pathogenic bacteria Erwinia chrysanthemi revealed the presence of a cluster of eight genes encoding proteins potentially involved in galactan utilization. The predicted transport system would comprise a specific porin GanL and an ABC transporter made of four proteins, GanFGK(2). Degrada...