Incidence of bacterial blight pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. pisi in pea seeds grown in Rajasthan, India

Seeds of pea (Pisum sativum L.) originated from various districts of Rajasthan, India were collected and tested from 2010 to 2014 for the presence of seed borne bacterial pathogen namely Pseudomonas syringae pv. pisi causing bacterial blight of pea. The pathogen was identified using morphological, cultural, biochemical, pathogenicity and host tests followed by 16S rRNA based molecular characterization. The results showed that these strains belonged to Pseudomonas syringae pv. pisi. The partial 16S rRNA sequences obtained were deposited in the database of Genebank, NCBI (Acc. No. KF251036). The incidence of the pathogen was recorded 3.5 to 91.5% in pea seed samples collected from 25 districts of Rajasthan. The results showed that highest (91.5%) incidence was recorded in Tonk, followed by Jaipur (87%) and Dausa (85.5%) while lowest incidence recorded in pea seed samples from Ajmer (3.5%).