Morphology of petiole bending, senescence, epinasty, along with necrotic scarring in tomato leaves infiltrated with virulent Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum

Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum (Rps) belongs to the Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC). It is a vascular pathogen that causes lethal bacterial wilt disease in many plants, including tomato and eggplant. In this study, we infiltrated tomato leaves with the phytopathogenic bacterium at 109 CFU/mL and observed the development of necrotic scars in the infiltrated area at 48 hours post-infiltration. Interestingly, this response was followed by petiole bending toward the ground of the compound leaf. This was followed by the gradual senescence of the infiltrated leaflet only. In addition, the terminal leaflet infiltrated with the pathogen exhibited epinasty. None of the above symptoms were observed in leaves infiltrated with the known virulent deficient hrpB::{Omega} mutant. Surprisingly, all of the above symptoms were observed in leaves infiltrated with another well-known virulence-deficient mutant phcA::{Omega}. It indicated that the necrotic lesion caused in tomato leaves was hrp-dependent. Infiltration in eggplant leaves caused necrotic scarring and leaf senescence, which were relatively delayed. Necrotic scarring without petiole bending or senescence in tomato leaves was also observed due to infiltration of Pseudomonas aeruginosa SPT08, a tomato endophyte having plant growth promotion activity. The patho-phenotypes such as petiole bending, epinasty, and senescence observed in the case of tomato in this study were not reported earlier. We believe these phenotypes produced in tomato after leaf infiltration may be useful to study the virulence of this pathogen.