A Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay for the Detection of Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum in Banana.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers (BXW-1 and BXW-3) for conventional PCR were developed from conserved sequences in the hrpB operon of the hrp gene cluster from Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum, the causative agent of banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW). All 50 strains of X. campestris pv. musacearum, isolated from Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania, produced a 214-bp amplicon when whole cells, bacterial ooze from infected tissue, and genomic DNA purified from bacterial ooze or infected tissue were used as template. The BXW primers also detected strains of X. axonopodis pv. vasculorum isolated from sugarcane and maize and strains of X. vasicola pv. holcicola isolated from sorghum. All of the strains of X. campestris pv. musacearum were clonal when compared using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR.