IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIAL LEAF STREAK OF CEREALS BY THEIR PHENOTYPIC CHARACTERISTICS AND HOST-RANGE IN IRAN

Forty-four bacterial isolates were obtained from infected wheat, barle y and various grasses from different regions of Iran. All isolates wer e bacteriologically similar to Xanthomonas campestris and some of thei r physiological and biochemical features can be useful for a primary d ifferentiation between them. Depending on their pathogenicity, the iso lates were split into two groups; the wheat group isolated from wheat, barley and grasses could infect artificially wheat, barley, rye, Agro pyron elongatum, Bromus inermis, and Lolium multiflorum but not oat, w hereas the barley group obtained from cultivated or wild barley was pa thogenic to barley only. From their bacteriological characteristics an d host range, the barley and the wheat group isolated were identified as X. campestris pvs. hordei and cerealis, respectively. Aegilops sp., Sclerochloa dura, and Heteranthelium sp. were, for the first time, sh own to be hosts of X. c. pv. cerealis.