The Big Freeze...and other
factors
- Pseudomonas syringae
has adapted to it’s environment in a number of ways.
It can stand relative dry conditions which allows it
to survive on a number of plant tissues, such as the
leaves, that are often of a low moisture content.
This such adaptability allows it to populate
surfaces in
harsher conditions that it’s nutritional competitors
may not be able to survive in as readily. P.
syringae has also adapted a function commonly
known as ice nucleation. Ice nucleation means that
water will freeze at higher than normal temperatures
(as high as -1.8 C or 29 F). This ice nucleation
property occurs in the presence of the ICE (+) gene
that is found in the plasmid, or extra chromosomal
DNA, of the bacterial cell. Ice nucleation injures
the epithelial tissues of the host plant allowing
the nutrients of deeper plant tissues to became
available for P. syringae metabolism. P.
syringae is also thought to play a large role
in determining it’s environment by being a large
influence on the atmospheric development of rain and
snow.
- Another
adaptation that P. syringae has that a number
of other metabolic competitors do not have is the
presence of a polar flagella for chemotaxis, or the
movement by an organism due to molecular/chemical
stimuli.
