Flagella-Driven Motility Is Critical to the Virulence of Xanthomonas fragariae in Strawberry.

Xanthomonas fragariae (X. fragariae) is the causal agent of angular leaf spots (ALS) in strawberry plants. Recently, a study in China isolated X. fragariae strain YL19, which was observed to cause both typical ALS symptoms and dry cavity rot in strawberry crown tissue; this was the first X. fragariae strain to have both these effects in strawberry. In this study, from 2020 to 2022, we isolated 39 X. fragariae strains from diseased strawberries in different production areas in China. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and phylogenetic analysis showed that X. fragariae strain YLX21 was genetically different from YL19 and other strains. Tests indicated that YLX21 and YL19 had different pathogenicities toward strawberry leaves and stem crowns. YLX21 did not cause ALS symptoms, rarely caused dry cavity rot in strawberry crown after wound inoculation, and never caused dry cavity rot after spray inoculation, but it did cause severe ALS symptoms after spray inoculation. However, YL19 caused more severe symptoms in strawberry crowns under both conditions. Moreover, YL19 had a single polar flagellum, while YLX21 had no flagellum. Motility and chemotaxis assays showed that YLX21 had weaker motility than YL19, which may explain why YLX21 tended to multiply in situ within the strawberry leaf rather than migrate to other tissues, causing more severe ALS symptoms and mild crown rot symptoms. Taken together, the new strain YLX21 helped us reveal critical factors underlying the pathogenicity of X. fragariae and the mechanism by which dry cavity rot in strawberry crowns forms.