| Caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, bacterial wilt, a typical soil-borne disease, is a destructive crop disease worldwide. R. solanacearum, a β-proteobacterium, gram-negative and aerobic rod-shaped bacteria, can infect more than 200 plant species belonging to over 50 different botanical families. The pathogen can survive for over five years in soil or water in the absence of host plants. Once encountering a suitable host plant, it enters the roots and then invades the xylem vessels, and finally causes plant irreversible wilt to death. R. solanacearum is considered as a species complex due to the significant physiological differentiation and genetic diversity. Till now, it is found that R. solanacearum has five races, five biovars, four phylotypes and 57 sequevars. Bacterial wilt is a destructive disease of many crop species and one of the most important plant bacterial diseases in Guangdong Province. So far, at least 35 kinds of plants were infected and damaged by R. solanacearum, including first reported host plants Morus alba, Eucalyptus robusta, Ipomoea batatas, Kaempferia galangal, Cucurbita maxima, Ipomoea aquatic, Dendranthema morifolium, Helianthus annuus, Pogostemon cablin, Ageratum conyzoides and Solanum muricatum. The disease causes huge economic losses every year. In this paper, the main advances in bacterial wilt research at home and abroad are summarized and the main results of our research group in the past 20 years are also reviewed. |
