Bacteria cause which of the following symptoms?

• A. Shoot blights, leaf spots, soft rots, and galls
• B. Only root chlorosis
• C. Flower color changes
• D. Bird damage

Answer: (A)

Bacteria in ornamental plant diseases often cause tissue destruction that shows up as blights, spots, soft rots, and galls. Bacterial pathogens multiply in plant tissues, secrete enzymes and toxins that break down cell walls, and can produce ooze that helps spread infection. This leads to shoot blights where growing shoots die back, leaf spots with necrotic lesions, soft rots where tissue becomes mushy, and galls at wound sites from abnormal tissue growth. The other options don’t fit this typical pattern: root chlorosis is usually due to nutrient uptake issues or non-bacterial root problems, flower color changes are environmental or genetic, and bird damage is physical injury by wildlife.