Acidovorax avenae

Acidovorax citrulli (formerly A. avenae subsp. citrulli (williems et al., 1992)) is a Gram-negative, biotrophic bacterium causes seedling blight and bacterial fruit blotch (BFB) of cucurbits. On the basis of carbon source utilization, DNA-fingerprinting profiles, whole-cell fatty-acid composition utilization and pathogenicity assays, A. citrulli is divided into two distinct groups (Walcott et al., 2004; Burdman et al., 2005; Bahar & Burdman, 2010). The group I strains are mainly associated with non-watermelon plants (mainly melon), while group II includes strains that were mainly isolated from watermelon.