Differential Effects of Lithium Chloride on In Vitro Growth of Clavibacter michiganense subsp. nebraskense Depending upon Inoculum Source

Authors

Mary L. Smidt, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Anne K. Vidaver, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

9-1-1986

Comments

Published in APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Sept. 1986, p. 591-593 Vol. 52, No. 3. Copyright 1986, American Society for Microbiology. Used by permission.

Abstract

The bacterium Clavibacter michiganense subsp. nebraskense (Corynebacterium michiganense subsp. nebraskense) was grown in broth cultures and inoculated into corn plants. The plating efficiency of cells from broth cultures was essentially the same on nutrient broth-yeast extract and the semiselective medium for this bacterium, CNS. However, when cells were isolated from Goss bacterial wilt- and blight-infected corn, very few were recovered on CNS compared with the amount recovered on nutrient broth-yeast extract agar. When lithium chloride was omitted from the CNS, recoveries from infected corn were nearly the same as on nutrient broth-yeast extract agar. No other ingredient of CNS was inhibitory, nor did substitution of other salts for lithium chloride cause equal inhibition. The amount of inhibition was proportional to lithium chloride concentration. The inhibition by lithium chloride occurred with several strains of the bacterium isolated from one corn cultivar and with one of the strains recovered from three different cultivars of infected corn.