''Erwinia'' is a genus of

Enterobacterales Enterobacterales is an order of Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-negative, non-spore forming, Facultative anaerobic organism, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria with the class Gammaproteobacteria. The type genus of this order is ''Enterob ...

bacteria containing mostly plant pathogenic species which was named for the famous plant pathologist, Erwin Frink Smith. It contains

Gram-negative Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that, unlike gram-positive bacteria, do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. Their defining characteristic is that their cell envelope consists ...

bacteria related to ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...

'', '' Shigella'', ''

Salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of bacillus (shape), rod-shaped, (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two known species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' ...

'', and '' Yersinia''. They are primarily rod-shaped bacteria. Many infect

woody plant A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposed to Herbaceous plant, herbaceous plants that die back to t ...

s. A well-known member of this genus is the species '' E. amylovora'', which causes fire blight on apples, pears, and other

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus '' Rosa''. The family includes herbs, shrubs, and trees. Most species are deciduous, but som ...

crops; ''E. tracheiphila'', though, causes bacterial wilt of

cucurbits The Cucurbitaceae (), also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family consisting of about 965 species in 101 genera.

. Other familiar species, such as '' E. carotovora'' (another major cause of plant diseases), are more distantly related to the fire blight bacterium, and have been moved to genera '' Brenneria'', '' Dickeya'', and '' Pectobacterium''. ''Erwinia aphidocola'' and ''E. persicina'' species were both observed to be present within the floral nectar microbial community of seven different orchid ('' Epipactis'') flower species. ''E. aphidicola'' appears to display characteristics of a pathogen as it had decimated fifty percent of a bean crop in Spain in late 2003. ''Erwinia rhapontici'' has been identified as a plant pathogen that produces a distinct diffusible pink pigment on sucrose-peptone agar and creates pink seeds in the hosts. It is also found to be a wound pathogen. Wound pathogens are replicating microorganisms in a wound that can cause the host injury. It is possible that the bacterium can penetrate though young pea pods through wounds or injuries and infect seeds produced in the pod, causing deformed leaves. Erwinia uredovora is a bacterium from which Phytoene desaturase was isolated, which is the gene that is inserted into golden rice.

Species

Species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in ''Erwinia'' are: * '' Erwinia amylovora'' (Fire blight) * '' Erwinia aphidicola'' * '' Erwinia billingiae'' * '' Erwinia endophytica'' * '' Erwinia gerundensis'' * '' Erwinia iniecta'' * '' Erwinia mallotivora'' * '' Erwinia oleae'' * '' Erwinia papayae'' * ''

Erwinia persicina ''Erwinia'' is a genus of Enterobacterales bacteria containing mostly plant pathogenic species which was named for the famous plant pathologist, Erwin Frink Smith. It contains Gram-negative bacteria related to ''Escherichia coli'', ''Shigella'', ...

'' * '' Erwinia piriflorinigrans'' * '' Erwinia psidii'' * '' Erwinia pyrifoliae'' * '' Erwinia rhapontici'' * '' Erwinia tasmaniensis'' * '' Erwinia teleogrylli'' * '' Erwinia toletana'' * '' Erwinia tracheiphila'' * '' Erwinia typographi'' * '' Erwinia uredovora'' * '' Erwinia uzenensis'' '' Dickeya dadantii'' was formerly classified as ''Erwinia chrysanthemi''.

References

{{Authority control Bacterial plant pathogens and diseases Bacteria genera Enterobacterales