Emended description of Pseudomonas syringae pv. avellanae, causal agent of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) bacterial canker and decline

Recent studies based on multiple, comparative taxonomic analyses, including MLSA and average nucleotide identity (ANI) approaches, revealed the clear existence of strains associated with bacterial canker and decline of Corylus avellana trees belonging to two different genomospecies: Pseudomonas avellanae and Pseudomonas syringae. Strains of the latter were tentatively named P. s. pv. avellanae. The distinctiveness of the two phytopathogens, both associated with the same symptoms to C. avellana, requires the formal emended description of P. s. pv. avellanae. In fact, the strain BPIC 631 = NCPPB 3487, originally described as P. s. pv. avellanae and subsequently elevated to species/genomospecies level, was confirmed as the pathotype strain of P. avellanae. In this paper, the emended description of Pseudomonas syringae pv. avellanae, causal agent of European hazelnut bacterial canker and decline, is provided. P. s. pv. avellanae DSMZ 100307 = CRAPAV 013 is designed as the pathotype strain of this pathovar which infect solely C. avellana trees.