Pathovar

"Pathotype" redirects here. For the term as used for fungi, see Forma specialis.

A pathovar is a bacterial 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 hosts.

Bacterial leaf blight of common panax (Polyscias guilfoylei) caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. hederae

Bacterial black spot of mango caused by Xanthomonas citri pv. mangiferaeindicae

Pathovars are named as a ternary or quaternary addition to the species binomial name, for example the bacterium that causes citrus canker 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, neotype, etc.) of the species to which the pathovar belongs.^[1]

See also

• Infraspecific names in botany
• Phytopathology
• Trinomen, infraspecific names in zoology (subspecies only)