Bacterial Wilt: The Disease and Its Causative Agent, Pseudomonas solanacearum

Bacterial wilt is an important disease that limits the production of many crop plants in the warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of the world. Few other plant diseases are comparable in terms of diversity of host range and wide geographic distribution, as well as of economic importance. Host plants include banana, eggplant, ginger, peanut, pepper, potato, tobacco and tomato. This book is the first to provide a general but comprehensive review of the disease and the bacterium that causes it. It considers topics ranging from taxonomy, phylogeny and genetics, to control strategies, and provides up-to-date information on recent advances derived from molecular biological approaches. The bacterium is also increasingly being used as a model system for the study of host-parasite interactions. Therefore the book represents a standard reference volume for both bacteriologists and plant pathologists.