Cultural and Morphological Characteristics of Different Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae Isolates on Nutrient Agar Media

Abstract

India is the leading pomegranate producer which contributes nearly 50 per cent of the world ’ s production. Cultivation of high yielding varieties of pomegranate with intensive care and management in the recent past under irrigated condition with early stage exploitation of plants has lead to certain severe pest and disease problems. Among the major diseases leaf spot, fruit spot and wilt results in reduction of pomegranate fruit yield and put the growers in to hardship. Pomegranate grows very well on the moderately alkaline soils as well as slightly acidic soils. It is common to the tropics, subtropics and sub-temperate regions and is well adapted to areas with hot and dry summers. For the first time in India, leaf spot of pomegranate was reported Hingorani and Mehta (1952). Later on during 1959, Hingorani and Singh took a thorough investigation on the disease and causal organism and designated the pathogen as Xanthomonas punicae. Chand and Kishun (1991) had isolated the causal organism of bacterial blight of pomegranate and based on its pathological, cultural, biochemical and physiological features, identified as a Xanthomonas campestris pv. punicae. Further in year 1995, Vauterin et al., (1995) had renamed this causal organism as Xanthomonas International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 11 (2017) pp. 1678-1683 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com