Abstract

Introduction. Xanthomonas campestris is an important bacterium responsible for bacterial wilt disease, which causes predominantly a serious loss in enset production. In some enset-growing areas of Ethiopia, farmers are enforced to replace perennial enset plants with annual crops because of this disease devastates enset production. Aim. Therefore, the study aimed to identify the molecular diversity of bacterial wiealt diseas cosing bacteria from infected enset plants that were collected from the Gurage Zone, using the 16S rRNA gene sequence. Methods. 60 infected enset samples were collected from infected enset plants. Presumptive identification of the bacterium was done through biochemical tests. 16S rRNA genes of bacterial isolates were amplified using the bacteria universal primers and the amplified products were sequenced at MRC-Holland, Amsterdam. Sequence analysis and comparison were conducted to identify the isolated microbes into species and strain levels. Results. Based on the biochemical tests, 18 bacterial isolates were motile, indole negative as well as citrate and catalase positive and they were hydrolyzed starch. The sequence analysis revealed that from 18 bacterial isolates 17 of them were identified as Xanthomonas campestris of different strains and one isolate was identified as an uncultured bacterium. In this study, different Xanthomonas campestris strains that have different virulence factors were identified in the study area. To effectively control and manage bacterial wilt disease of enset plant, it is important to examine antipathogenic agent or biological control mechanisms for all Xanthomonas campestris strains. Additionally, determining plant bacterial interaction using molecular tools and identify the virulence genes are also beneficial.