Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae B728a

This plant pathogen causes disease in a wide range of plants and crops, including bacterial speck on tomatoes. Black specks form on the leaves and fruit, stunting growth. This gram negative pathogen also causes halo blight of beans. It is primarily seed-borne, and can also be spread from plant to plant by rain. Pseudomonas syringae is a model organism in plant pathology.This is a very versatile organism with several important phenotypes that have made it a focus of study and commercial application and a relevant organism for the DOE in the USA to support resarch, as this plant pathogen causes disease in a variety of plant species, severely impacting both food and biomass production.Also strains of P. syringae have been exploited for a variety of industrial purposes of significance to DOE. For example, many strains of this species are active as ice nuclei catalyzing ice formation at temperatures approaching 0 C. For this reason they have been exploited as artificial ice nucleating agents in processes such as those involved in artificial snow production. A major use of the freeze-dried cells of P. syringae used in such an application has been in the creation of artificial ice islands to facilitate offshore oil drilling in cold oceans such as in the arctic. In a similar application there has been interest in using such ice nucleation active bacteria for the production of artificial mountains of ice in the winter for use in summer cooling of large industrial and office buildings. There is also considerable activity in the study of the use of such bacterial ice nuclei in improving the process of freezing of various foods, including frozen emulsified foods such as ice cream to improve both the energy efficiency of the process and quality of the product.(From http://www.ebi.ac.uk/2can/genomes/bacteria.html) (BacMap)