Xanthomonas campestris pv musacearum HOST RANGE IN UGANDA

The bacterium, Xanthomonas campestris pv musacearum causes the banana bacterial wilt. Effective disease management requires removal of inflorescence and cultural practices such as sterilization of garden tools and rouging of infected plants and destruction of diseased plants. It also requires good knowledge of host range of this pathogen. Symptoms include premature fruit ripening and yellowing of leaves. The goal of this study was to investigate etiology of the disease in banana, which up to now is not well studied to guide screening processes. Thus, bacterium was isolated and 1 mL containing 1x10^8 bacterial cells/mL was injected into petioles of youngest open leaves/3rd internodes from shoot tips and 25 plants each, of the 20 suspected plant species assembled in pots in a farmer s field. This isolated bacterium induced symptoms often associated with X. campestris pv musacearum infection to banana plantlets within 2-5 weeks. The bacterium also incited wilt symptoms in wild bananas relatives, Musa zebrine and M. ornate and in an ornamental / wild weed Canna indica but not in other test plants. In the banana plantlets the earliest observable external symptom was collapse was collapse of the leaf blade along the midrib followed by scalding and dull green appearance of the leaves.