A pathovar is a
bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...
l strain or set of strains with the same or similar characteristics, that is differentiated at infrasubspecific level from other strains of the same species or subspecies on the basis of distinctive pathogenicity to one or more
plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
hosts.
Pathovars are named as a ternary or quaternary addition to the species binomial name, for example the bacterium that causes
citrus canker
Citrus canker is a disease affecting ''Citrus'' species caused by the bacterium ''Xanthomonas'' (''X.axonopodis; X. campestris''). Infection causes lesions on the leaves, stems, and fruit of citrus trees, including lime, oranges, and grapefruit ...
''Xanthomonas axonopodis'', has several pathovars with different host ranges,
''X. axonopodis'' pv. ''citri'' is one of them; the abbreviation 'pv.' means pathovar.
The
type strains of pathovars are pathotypes, which are distinguished from the types (
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
,
neotype
In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...
, etc.) of the species to which the pathovar belongs.
See also
*
Infraspecific name
In botany, an infraspecific name is the scientific name for any taxon below the rank of species, i.e. an infraspecific taxon or infraspecies. (A "taxon", plural "taxa", is a group of organisms to be given a particular name.) The scientific names ...
s in botany
*
Phytopathology
Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomyc ...
*
Trinomen
In biology, trinomial nomenclature refers to names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany.
In zoology
In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or ternary ...
, infraspecific names in zoology (subspecies only)
References
Biological classification
Bacterial plant pathogens and diseases
Microbiology
Pathovars
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