BIOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT OF BACTERIAL SPOT OF TOMATO

There are four objectives in this project.Objective 1. Assess the diversity of Xanthomonas cynarae pv. gardneri (Xcg) isolates collected from tomato fields across New York using DNA fingerprinting methods such as REP-PCR, multi-locus sequence analysis, plasmid profiles, identification of simple sequence repeats, or identification of TAL effectors.Objective 2. Compare diversity of isolates collected in New York, to isolates collected from other locations across the US.Objective 3. Determine the level of resistance, if any, of commercially available tomato cultivars to the diversity of Xcg isolates identified in objective 1 and 2.Objective 4. Begin to understand virulence mechanisms of the pathogen by knocking out a potentially critical effector gene xopAO