syringae 1448a resulted in complete abolition of pyoverdine synthesis. Analysis of these mutants learn more under iron-limiting conditions revealed the presence of a secondary siderophore, which was shown by genetic and biochemical analysis to be achromobactin. Although P. syringae 1448a also appears to have the genetic potential to produce a third siderophore, yersiniabactin, our pvd-/acr- double mutant did not appear to be able to make this or any other siderophores, at least in response to iron limitation. Our study does not rule out that yersiniabactin synthesis might be induced in P. syringae 1448a in planta, but this would contrast with

yersiniabactin synthesis in P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000, which occurs both in planta [46] and under iron-limiting conditions in vitro [43]. We observed that synthesis of achromobactin by our pvd- mutant was temperature sensitive. Temperature regulation of siderophore production has been observed for other bacterial

species [[47–49]] and has been known to govern expression of other P. syringae genes, especially those implicated in causing disease [50]. Achromobactin is known to contribute to virulence in D. dadantii [25], and these observations prompted us to test whether it is a virulence factor in P. syringae 1448a also. The contribution of both achromobactin and pyoverdine to virulence of P. syringae 1448a during infection of Phaseolus vulgaris was assessed by inoculation of mutant strains and wild type controls into the bean pods. All single and double mutants were selleck still able to cause lesions in this standardized pathogenicity test, indicating that neither siderophore is required for P. syringae

1448a to cause halo blight in Phaseolus vulgaris. These results were initially surprising to us, given that iron is essential for core metabolic processes, is believed to be severely restricted in the plant extracellular environment [51], and that siderophores are generally regarded as important for microbial pathogenesis of both plant and animal hosts [6, 51]. However, although the assumption is frequently made that pyoverdines are able to (-)-p-Bromotetramisole Oxalate act as virulence factors in both animal and plant hosts, there is little experimental evidence for the latter. Indeed, pyoverdine from P. syringae pv. syringae has likewise been shown not to have a determinative role in pathogenesis of sweet cherry fruit [52] and more recently, pyoverdine in P. syringae pv. tomato DC3000 has also been shown to be dispensable for pathogenesis [46]. It may be that phytotoxins render siderophores obsolete during the disease process by releasing iron from damaged plant cells into the extra-cellular environment. It should also be noted that the standard bean inoculation assay for P. syringae 1448a virulence monitors only the ability to cause lesions, which is dependent primarily on toxin release and may not accurately report on the full progression of disease.