SURVEY OF TOMATO BACTERIAL DISEASES GROWN UNDER GREENHOUSES IN MERSIN AND NEW EMERGING BACTERIAL DISEASE AGENTS

Mersin is one of the important cities that grows tomatoes in Turkey. In this study, tomatobacterial disease surveys were conducted in 130 individual greenhouses located in Silifke, acounty of Mersin, and prevalence of the bacterial diseases were evaluated. Among surveyedgreenhouses, 31 were infected with bacterial disease symptoms like chlorosis and necrosis onleaves, wilt, stem rot and pith necrosis. A total of 317 putative bacterial strains were isolatedfrom diseased plants. Amongst them, 109 plant pathogenic bacterial strains were identifiedusing physiological and biochemical tests, MALDI-TOF MS, PCR and sequencing tools. Theprevalence of bacterial diseases in tomato growing greenhouses in Silifke, Mersin was recordedas 23.8%. The pathogenic bacterium, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, was widespread by17.7% in the region followed by a prevalence 4.6% of Stenotrophomonas spp. and 1.5%prevalence of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis and Pectobacteriumcarotovorum subsp. carotovorum, respectively. The probable plant opportunistic bacteria fromthe genera Stenotrophomonas Paenibacillus, Microbacterium and Arthrobacter spp. wererarely isolated for the first time in Turkey. In the future, further tests should be conducted toverify their pathogenicity on tomatoes and other crops. This study was supported by ErciyesUniversity Scientific Research Projects Unit (ID: FYL-2019-9570).