The red stripe of sugarcane caused by Acidovorax avenae is a bacterial disease widespread in most sugarcane-producing areas in the world. Over the past 15 years, red stripe has become the most serious plant disease in Argentina, causing severe infections in susceptible sugarcane varieties that have increased yield losses by up to 30%. Currently, the main control strategy for managing this disease relies on the development of tolerant sugarcane varieties to replace the susceptible ones. Therefore, understanding the genetic diversity of A. avenae could provide valuable information for improving disease diagnosis and developing an accurate screening protocol to detect tolerant genotypes in breeding populations. Since 2008, joint research efforts related to red stripe have been conducted by the Sugarcane Breeding and the Phytopathology research groups of INTA. These research activities have been focused on identifying the most susceptible varieties, determining the incidence areas, and studying the survival time of bacteria under post-harvest conditions. Furthermore, INTA reported the first genome sequence of A. avenae and the genetic diversity among strains causing red stripe in the sugarcane region of Argentina, with publications spanning from 2011 to 2019. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize a set of new isolates from Jujuy, Salta, and Tucumán in order to increase and complete the typing of A. avenae in the northwest sugarcane region of Argentina. By combining classical microbiological techniques and molecular methods such as species-specific PCR and RAPD, we isolated, identified and genetically characterized A. avenae from leaves showing symptoms of red stripe. A high polymorphism (differences in the number of bands, fragment size, and intensity) was observed among isolated strains from different producing regions, confirming the expected diversity pattern. The findings on genetic diversity and strain host specificity presented here will be valuable for developing red stripe disease-tolerant sugarcane varieties.

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