Documentation of virulence and races of Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum in India and its correlation with genetic diversity revealed by repetitive elements (REP, ERIC, and BOX) and ISSR markers.

Thirty-four Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum (Xcm) isolates collected from three cotton-growing zones of India were subjected for virulence and race documentation and further correlated with genetic diversity as revealed by repetitive elements [repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP), enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) and BOX elements] and intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR)-PCR analyses. Among the 34 isolates tested for virulence on susceptible cultivar LRA 5166, 7 were recorded as highly virulent (HV), 16 were moderately virulent (MV) and 11 were less virulent (LV). Eight different races were recorded by using ten cotton host differentials. Twenty-two isolates (65%) belonged to race 18. Twelve isolates (35%) pertained to races 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11 and 13. REP, ERIC, BOX, combined repetitive elements, and ISSR analyses revealed the presence of 7, 10, 9, 11, and 8 clusters, respectively, at similarity coefficient of 0.70 in dendrograms. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) exhibited 76.4% and 77.5% cumulative variability for combined repetitive elements and ISSR analyses. ERIC produced the highest polymorphic information content (PIC) value (0.928). A lot of intra-pathovar variability was observed in virulence and genomic fingerprinting among Xcm isolates. Many of the isolates grouped based on geographical origin irrespective of virulence or race. The spread of the pathogen races in India might be due to the transport of germplasm lines and seed materials from one place to others.