Origin and evolution of the kiwifruit canker pandemic

The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Recurring epidemics of kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.) bleeding canker disease are caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa). In order to strengthen understanding of population structure, phylogeography and evolutionary dynamics, we isolated Pseudomonas from cultivated and wild kiwifruit across six provinces in China. Based on the analysis of eighty sequenced Psa genomes we show that China is the origin of the pandemic lineage but that strain diversity in China is confined to just a single clade. In contrast, Korea and Japan harbour strains from multiple clades. Distinct independent transmission events marked introduction of the pandemic lineage into New Zealand, Chile, Europe, Korea and Japan. Despite high similarity within the core genome and minimal impact of within-clade recombination, we observed extensive variation even within the single clade from which the global pandemic arose.

Keywords

pathogen evolution, genomic epidemiology, bacterial plant pathogen, plant-microbe interactions, disease emergence

Citation

GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, 2017, 9 (4), pp. 932 - 944

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