Abstract

  Klebsiella pneumoniae strain Borkar (NCBI accession number: KY941097.1), a new bacterial plant pathogen responsible for root bark necrosis and wilting in pomegranate plants was studied for its colony morphology, cell morphology and flagellation under transmission electron microscopy.

  The bacterial colonies of Klebsiella pneumoniae strain Borkar were creamy white, circular, raised, fluidal with 2 to 3 mm diameter on nutrient agar media at 72 h of growth. In nutrient broth media the bacterial culture turned into a frothing culture after three days of growth. The bacterial cell size of the pathogen varied from 1.76-2.50 ×0.94-1.08 µm and has minute cilli all over the cell surface. Transmission electron microscopy of the bacterial cells indicated that the bacteria possess sub-polar flagellum measuring 3.44 to 4.33 µm in length. This is the first report of flagellated plant pathogenic Klebsiella pneumoniae.

  Generally, Klebsiella pneumoniae is a non-motile, non-flagellated human pathogen. However, Our  results along with the results of Liu., et al. indicated that Klebsiella pneumoniae has now evolved itself as soil-borne plant pathogen. But the genus Klebsiella is not yet included as a genus of plant pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, we propose the inclusion of the genus Klebsiella as a plant pathogenic bacterial genus. Further, our results confirm that plant pathogenic Klebsiella pneumoniae pathogenic on pomegranate has a sub-polar flagellation. Our results on flagellation in plant pathogenic Klebsiella pneumonia are supportive to the results of flagellation in human pathogenic klebsiella pneumonia as reported by A.C.Lima. Based on these results, it is proposed to redefine the genus Klebsiella as the bacterial genus of motile and Flagellated bacteria also.

Keywords: Klebsiella pneumoniae; Pomegranate; Root Bark Necrosis Disease; Flagellation

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Citation

Citation: SG Borkar and Ajayasree TS. “Presence of Flagellation in Plant Pathogenic Strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae - A New Report". Acta Scientific Microbiology 4.1 (2021): 114-117.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 SG Borkar and Ajayasree TS. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.