LAUSR

Bacterial wilt (BW), caused by the Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC), is the most destructive potato disease in Kenya. Studies were conducted to (i) determine the molecular diversity of RSSC strains associated with BW of potato in Kenya, (ii) generate an RSSC distribution map for epidemiological inference, and (iii) determine whether phylotype II sequevar 1 strains exhibit epidemic clonality. Surveys were conducted in 2018 and 2019, in which tubers from wilting potato plants and stem samples of potential alternative hosts were collected for pathogen isolation. The pathogen was phylotyped by multiplex PCR and 536 RSSC strains typed at a sequevar level. Two RSSC phylotypes were identified, phylotype II (98.4%, n = 506 (sequevar 1 (n = 505) and sequevar 2 (n = 1))) and phylotype I (1.6%, n = 30 (sequevar 13 (n = 9) and a new sequevar (n = 21))). The phylotype II sequevar 1 strains were haplotyped using multilocus tandem repeat sequence typing (TRST) schemes. The TRST scheme identified 51 TRST profiles within the phylotype II sequevar 1 strains with a modest diversity index (HGDI = 0.87), confirming the epidemic clonality of RSSC phylotype II sequevar 1 strains in Kenya. A minimum spanning tree and mapping of the TRST profiles revealed that TRST27 '8-5-12-7-5' is the primary founder of the clonal complex of RSSC phylotype II sequevar 1 and is widely distributed via latently infected seed tubers.