comparative genomics of erwinia amylovora and related erwinia species—what do we learn比较基因组学的欧文氏菌amylovora和相关欧文氏菌species-what我们学习.pdf

Genes 2011, 2, 627-639; doi:10.3390/genes2030627 OPEN ACCESS genes ISSN 2073-4425 /journal/genes Review Comparative Genomics of Erwinia amylovora and Related Erwinia Species—What do We Learn? Youfu Zhao * and Mingsheng Qi Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1201 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL 61801, USA; E-Mail: msqi@ * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: zhao888@; Tel.: +1-217-265-9822; Fax: +1-217-333-4582. Received: 7 August 2011; in revised form: 30 August 2011 / Accepted: 8 September 2011 / Published: 15 September 2011 Abstract: Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fire blight disease of apples and pears, is one of the most important plant bacterial pathogens with worldwide economic significance. Recent reports on the complete or draft genome sequences of four species in the genus Erwinia, including E. amylovora, E. pyrifoliae, E. tasmaniensis, and E. billingiae, have provided us near complete genetic information about this pathogen and its closely-related species. This review describes in silico subtractive hybridization-based comparative genomic analyses of eight genomes currently available, and highlights what we have learned from these comparative analyses, as well as genetic and functional genomic studies. Sequence analyses reinforce the assumption that E. amylovora is a relatively homogeneous species and support the current classification scheme of E. amylovora and its related species. The potential