First report of Clavibacter nebraskensis in Mexico
Clavibacter nebraskensis causes Goss’s wilt and leaf blight of maize (Zea mays). It was considered as a serious disease that appeared in the 1970s in maize-producing areas in Nebraska and neighbouring states of the USA. It disappeared in the mid 1980s, before re-emerging after 2004 and spreading to further US states, as well as in Canada.
A recent article reports that in Mexico, this pathogen (regulated as a quarantine pest in Mexico) had caused occasional outbreaks in several parts of the country: in Sinaloa in 2011, in Coahuila in 2012, in Veracruz in 2013, and in Durango, Tlaxcala and Oaxaca in 2014.
Severe bacterial leaf blight symptoms were observed in several maize crops in Tlaxcala in September 2021. Pathogenicity and molecular tests confirmed that the pathogen was Clavibacter nebraskensis. The authors consider that C. nebraskensis is established in Mexico, and raise the hypothesis that it may originate in the Tlaxcala region.
Sources
Flores-López LF, Olalde-Portugal V, Vidaver AK, Morales-Galván Ó, Hernández-Rosales M, Huerta AI (2024) Unlocking a mystery: characterizing the first appearance of Clavibacter nebraskensis in Mexican cornfields. Plant Disease 108(5), 1374-1381.
Osdaghi E, Robertson AE, Jackson‐Ziems TA, Abachi H, Li X, Harveson RM (2023) Clavibacter nebraskensis causing Goss's wilt of maize: five decades of detaining the enemy in the New World. Molecular Plant Pathology 24(7), 675-692.