LAUSR

In 2015, pepper black spot disease became seriously prevalent in Guangdong Province, China. The stem and petioles of diseased plants were strewn with black, circular to oval and bulged spots. A bacterium was isolated from black spots on stem. The bacterium could cause same symptoms on pepper plants by sprinkling inoculation. 16S rDNA sequences of bacterium shared 99-100% identity with Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense strain 1033. The 322 bp specific fragment could be amplified from the five bacterial isolates using primers Br1f/L1r specific for P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense. Characteristics of the bacterium were consistent with those of P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense reported. Thus, the causal bacterium identified was P. carotovorum subsp. 2 brasiliense. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of pepper black spot disease caused by P. carotovorum subsp. brasiliense in China.