Legumes and oil seeds can be effectively used in sorghum-based weaning foods as an acceptable protein and mineral supplement.

In 2008, a bacterial blight was observed on Raphanus sativus in the Pfalz region in Germany. Disease was sporadic but severe when present within R. sativus fields, which resulted in unmarketable crops. Symptoms consisted of small, angular, water-soaked flecks that often were surrounded by chlorotic haloes. Lesions were visible from adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces and generally retained chlorotic borders. A gram-negative, bluefluorescing bacterium was isolated from surface-disinfested leaf tissue on King's medium B agar. The radish isolate was levan positive, oxidase negative, and arginine dihydrolase negative. The isolate did not rot potato slices but induced a hypersensitive reaction in tobacco. These reactions corresponded to Lelliot's LOPAT group 1 (2). Repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence (rep)-PCR assays using the BOXA1R primer resulted in different DNA fragment banding patterns between the radish isolate and the pathotype strain of Pseudomonas syringae pv. maculicola (CFBP 1657), but identical DNA fragment banding patterns between the radish isolate and the pathotype strain of P. cannabina pv. alisalensis (CFBP 6866). Unlike P. syringae pv. maculicola, P. cannabina pv. alisalensis and the radish isolate were lysed by bacteriophage PBS1 (1). Pathogenicity was evaluated on two hosts, radish (R. sativus cv. Comet) and broccoli raab (Brassica rapa cv. Sorrento). In each of two independent experiments, 3-week-old radish and broccoli raab plants were inoculated with either the radish isolate, P. cannabina pv. alisalensis, or P. syringae pv. maculicola. Inoculum was prepared by growing the bacteria on nutrient agar for 48 h at 27°C, suspending the bacteria in 0.01 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0), and adjusting each suspension to 0.6 OD at 600 nm (approximately 1 × 108 CFU/ml). All plants were inoculated by spraying until runoff, incubated in a humidity chamber for 48 h, then placed in a greenhouse at 20 to 25°C for symptom development. Plants inoculated with P. cannabina pv. alisalensis or sprayed with buffer served as positive and negative control treatments, respectively. Seven to ten days postinoculation, the development of symptoms similar to those originally observed in the field were observed on plants inoculated with the radish isolate. In addition, symptoms on radish and broccoli raab plants caused by the radish isolate were similar to symptoms caused by P. cannabina pv. alisalensis in contrast to the lack of symptoms on plants inoculated with P. syringae pv. maculicola. Bacteria isolated from symptomatic tissue and surface-disinfested with sodium hypochlorite (0.525%) had identical characteristics to the radish isolate used to inoculate plants and to the P. cannabina pv. alisalensis pathotype for LOPAT reactions, rep-PCR DNA fragment banding pattern analysis, and sensitivity to phage PBS1, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. cannabina pv. alisalensis isolated from diseased crucifers in Germany. Verification of P. cannabina pv. alisalensis in Germany indicates that German crucifer growers should differentiate between outbreaks caused by P. cannabina pv. alisalensis and P. syringae pv. maculicola and apply appropriate, specific management strategies. References: (1) C. T. Bull et al. Syst. Appl. Microbiol. 33:105, 2010. (2) R. A. Lelliott. J. Appl. Bacteriol. 29:470, 1966.

In April 2005, serious seedling damping-off was noted on fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill. cv. Rondo) in a transplant greenhouse facility in Maasdijk, the Netherlands. Symptoms appeared 3 to 4 weeks after sowing and included black, sunken lesions aboveground on the stem and belowground on the hypocotyls. Mortality of seedlings was 6 to 10% (10 to 15 seedlings per 150-plant tray). Following removal of diseased seedlings, further transplant mortality in the field was not evident. Samples of diseased tissue were collected, surface disinfested, and placed in petri dishes containing water agar. After 7 to 10 days of incubation at 25°C under fluorescent lights, an Alternaria sp. was growing from each sample. Single conidium cultures were obtained from representative colonies and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and potato carrot agar (PCA) for morphological examination. On PDA, colonies were dark olive brown, cottony, subsurface microsclerotia production abundant, and no production of pigments in the medium. On PCA, conidia were darkly pigmented, broadly ellipsoidal to subsphaerical, and produced singly. Mature conidia were 28 to 45 × 20 to 25 μm with two to four transepta and one to three longisepta. Characteristics were consistent with those of Alternaria petroselini (2,3). In subsequent freezer-blotter assays (ISTA blotter method; www.seedtest.org ) of seed lot used in the original planting, the same fungus was recovered at an infestation level of 30%, confirming that it was seedborne. To confirm pathogenicity on fennel, pathogenicity tests were conducted on a common fennel cultivar (Floro F1) in the greenhouse and on fennel stalks in the laboratory. Fennel seeds were soaked in a conidia suspension (106/ml in sterile H2O) for 10 min. Control seeds were soaked in sterile H2O. Seeds were dried on paper, sown in soil plugs, and grown in the greenhouse at 16 to 20°C. After 4 weeks, black lesions were observed on the fennel stems and symptoms were similar to those observed on the original infected material. Control plants remained healthy. A fungus was reisolated from the lesions of symptomatic plants and was identical to the fungus isolated from the original infected material. For the fennel stalk assay, two surface-sterilized fennel stalks were sliced longitudinally and three 4-mm plugs from a 10-day-old culture of each isolate were placed along the fennel stalks. Sterile agar plugs were used as negative controls. After 7 to 10 days of incubation at 25°C in plastic boxes, test isolates grew extensively from agar plugs and resulted in extensive black necrosis of the fennel stalks. No necrosis resulted from control plugs. DNA was extracted from field isolates, and the nuclear internal transcribed spacer region was sequenced using protocol previously described (1). A representative sequence was deposited in GenBank (Accession No. EF636901). A BLAST search of the NCBI database revealed A. petroselini Accession No. AY154685 as the closest match (total score = 1,014, 100% coverage, 99% sequence identity). The next closest match was A. radicina Accession No. DQ394074 (total score 987, 100% coverage, 98% sequence identity). To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. petroselini causing disease of fennel and the fungus being seedborne on fennel seed. An isolate has been deposited at the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (Accession No. 118228). References: (1) B. M. Pryor and D. M. Bigelow. Mycologia 95:1141, 2003. (2) B. M. Pryor and R. L. Gilbertson. Mycologia 94:49, 2002. (3) E. G. Simmons. Mycotaxon 55:55, 1995.