Authors:

Shreya Joshy

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About Paper:

Ralstonia solanacearum is a phytopathogen that enters through the root vasculature and forms a biofilm called exopolysaccharide (EPS) that blocks water and nutrient intake, causing the plant to wilt. We investigate how exopolysaccharides interact with the plant's immune response and the relationship between carbohydrate- binding proteins in plants, called lectins, and bacterial EPS. Crude tomato lectins were isolated through column chromatography, and these were applied to K60, GMI, and their epsB mutant strains, which produce lower amounts of EPS. The colonies were viewed under a microscope to derive a correlation between levels of agglutination and the presence of EPS. To study how single lectins affect the properties of EPS production, lectins of interest were attached to a promoter with a tag and expressed in E. coli. Further, these will be applied to bacterial strains to examine agglutination. ROS assays are performed to understand how the plant responds to a pathogen, and this assay was used to study if the reactive oxygen species absorbed by the bacteria varied with the amount of EPS present. Roots from resistant and susceptible cultivars of tomato were treated with varying concentrations of elicitors, and the amounts of reactive oxygen species were monitored. To further explore the protective nature of EPS, wild-type, and epsB mutant strains were plated and exposed to hydrogen peroxide, and the zone of inhibition was calculated. Further research needs to be conducted to study the protective nature of bacterial EPS and the role it plays in colonization. Keywords: [no keywords provided]

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

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No topics listed

Co-authors:

Shreya Joshy