# Editorial: Emergence and re-emergence of plant diseases caused by Xanthomonas species

Teresa Coutinho, Marie-Agnes Jacques, Jeffrey Jones

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Teresa Coutinho, Marie-Agnes Jacques, Jeffrey Jones. Editorial: Emergence and re-emergence of plant diseases caused by Xanthomonas species. Frontiers in Microbiology, 2022, 13, 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1081601. hal-04132969

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OPEN ACCESS

EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Jesús Navas-Castillo,
La Mayora Experimental Station
(CSIC), Spain

*CORRESPONDENCE
Teresa A. Coutinho
Teresa.Coutinho@up.ac.za

SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to
Microbe and Virus Interactions with
Plants,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Microbiology

RECEIVED 27 October 2022

ACCEPTED 15 November 2022

PUBLISHED 12 December 2022

CITATION
Coutinho TA, Jacques M-A and
Jones J (2022) Editorial: Emergence
and re-emergence of plant diseases
caused by *Xanthomonas* species.
*Front. Microbiol.* 13:1081601.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1081601

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© 2022 Coutinho, Jacques and Jones.
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# Editorial: Emergence and re-emergence of plant diseases caused by *Xanthomonas* species

Teresa A. Coutinho¹*, Marie-Agnès Jacques² and
Jeffrey Jones³

¹Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics/Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa, ²Institut Agro, INRAE, IRHS, SFR QUASAV, University of Angers, Angers, France, ³Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States

KEYWORDS

geographic range, host range, virulence, aggressiveness, resistance

Editorial on the Research Topic

Emergence and re-emergence of plant diseases caused by
*Xanthomonas* species

The emergence and re-emergence of plant diseases has increased noticeably in recent years. This has been attributed to climate change, monoculture and trade (Willoquet et al., 2020). An example is the occurrence of *Xylella fastidiosa* in different regions of the world (Almeida and Nunney, 2015). It was described as a “relatively obscure pathogen” in 2002 (Hopkins and Purcell, 2002), but 10 years later it is now considered a major threat to agriculture worldwide.

*Xanthomonas* species are members of the Lysobacteriaceae (previously known as Xanthomonaceae), a family within the class Gammaproteobacteria. They have an extremely wide host range, infecting both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants. The number of first reports of novel *Xanthomonas* species or pathovars has increased in recent years (Bansai et al., 2022; Dia et al., 2022) as has the appearance of more aggressive strains of known species (Chen et al.). The same host has also been shown to harbor both pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains (Cesbron et al., 2015; Fernandes et al., 2021; Ramnarine et al., 2022). Furthermore, *Xanthomonas* species have been shown to have increased their host and geographic range (Curland et al., 2020; Sigillo et al., 2021). Horizontal gene transfer has been identified as one potential mechanism favouring host-range evolution (Chen et al., 2018).

*Xanthomonas* species can colonize novel hosts and inhabit unique ecological niches due to their extensive genomic diversity. This rich diversity has been shown to possibly be linked to different production systems (Abrahamian et al., 2019; Klein-Gordon et al., 2021) and cultivated regions (Chen et al., 2021). *Xanthomonas* species are also an
important component of the plant, rhizosphere and soil microbiomes (da Silva et al., 2021). The ability of this species to infect novel hosts and occur in different regions of the world has led to an increased research on such topics as host-pathogen interactions, virulence and pathoadaption. There has also been an increased understanding of the ecology and epidemiology of these pathogens.

Differences in aggressiveness between strains of *X. campestris* pv. *campestris* to cabbage was recorded in China (Chen et al.). The genomes of aggressive and less aggressive strains were sequenced. Differences were noted in Type III secreted effector repertoires, virulence factors and secreted proteins. The authors thus found a direct correlation between genomic variability and virulence of *X. campestris* pv. *campestris*.

In China, two strains of *X. oryzae* pv. *oryzae* from two locations, low land and high mountain paddies, were shown to differ significantly in virulence (Li et al.). In a comparative genomic analysis, the strains differed in <10 genes, including a gene coding for the transcription activator-like effector (TALE). The *tal* genes were variable in both their number and sequence. This study thus highlighted the variability of TALEs genes in strains of *X. oryzae* pv. *oryzae*.

Bacterial spot, caused by four *Xanthomonas* species, is an important disease of tomatoes and peppers. Jibrin et al. identified a novel race (T5) in Nigeria which was shown to be the product of recombination between two of the four *Xanthomonas* species. Genomes of these species have only been sequenced from five African countries. The authors thus note that there is thus a lack of information on the evolution and biology of these pathogens on this continent which could provide a foundation

for genome-informed host-pathogen and ecological interaction investigations that are novel to production systems in Africa.

## Author contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

## Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank co-editors and the contributors to this Research Topic.

## Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

## Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

## References

Abrahamian, P., Timilsina, S., Minsavage, G. V., Potnis, N., Jones, J. B., Goss, E. M., et al. (2019). Molecular epidemiology of *Xanthomonas perforans* outbreaks in tomato plants from transplant to field as determined by single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis. *Appl. Environ. Microbiol.* 85, e01220–e01219. doi: 10.1128/AEM.01220-19

Almeida, R. P. P., and Nunney, K. (2015). How do diseases caused by *Xylella fastidiosa* emerge? *Plant Dis.* 99, 1147–1157. doi: 10.10974/PDIS-02-15-0159-FE

Bansai, K., Kumar, S., and Patil, P. B. (2022). Taxonomic repositioning of twelve *Xanthomonas campestris*, seven *Xanthomonas axonopodis* and one *Pseudomonas cissicola* reference pathovars to *Xanthomonas citri*. *Phytopathology* 112, 1201–1207. doi: 10.1101/2021.07.23.453582

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