Genome Sequence of the Rice-Pathogenic Bacterium

Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae is a phytobacterium which is the causative agent of several plant diseases with economic significance. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of strain RS-1, which was isolated from rice shoots in a rice field in China. This strain can cause bacterial stripe of rice. Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae, formerly Pseudomonas ave-nae (10), can cause diseases in many plants with economic im-portance, including rice, corn, oats, sugarcane, millet, and foxtail (9). In rice, this pathogen can cause bacterial brown stripe and has been reported in many countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe (11). The symptoms start as brown stripes on the bottom of stems 5 days after emergence and frequently extend into the sheaths, spreading along the leaf midrib and throughout the seedling at the one-leaf stage (3). As A. avenae subsp. avenae is a widely distributed seed-borne pathogen of rice (8–9), the rice seeds contaminated with this pathogen are important sources of the primary inoculum and a means of dissemination of the patho