Variabilidad genética de la bacteria Ralstonia solanacearum (Burkholderiales: Burholderiaceae) en la zona bananera de Urabá (Colombia)

Abstract

The banana moko disease, caused by the bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum, is one of the most important phytopathological problems of the banana agribusiness in tropical countries. In Uraba and Magdalena (Colombia), the main exporting regions of banana in Colombia, this disease causes a destruction estimated in 16.5ha/year. The bacterium presents an extremely high level of genetic variation that affects control measures. This is the first study of its variation in Colombia and was done with AFLP molecular markers on a population of 100 isolates from banana plants, soils and "weeds". The high level of genetic diversity, with Nei and Shannon indexes of h=0.32 and I=0.48, respectively, and the AMOvA, showed that this population is subestructured (Fst=0.66): the host is the main factor of differentiation. Even so, previous tests show that all varieties have pathogenicity on Musa.