Unraveling the Mystery of Fire Blight in Korea: A Genomic Journey

Fire blight, a nasty bacterial disease that affects plants like apples and pears, is caused by a germ called Erwinia amylovora. This disease spreads fast and can kill the plants it infects. Korea first spotted this bacteria in 2015, and since then, it's been spreading across the country. Scientists already knew that five Korean strains of this bacterium were closely related to types found in North America. Now, they've taken the genomes of 92 more of these bacteria from various fire blight cases between 2016 and 2018. By studying these genomes, they could see how different the bacteria were from each other and how they were related. This helped them figure out the bacterium's most recent common ancestor in Korea and how it might have spread. It turns out that Erwinia amylovora has been in Korea for years before the first outbreak was even noticed. This finding can help scientists understand more about how this bacterium spreads, changes, and behaves in Korea.