An Auburn University researcher has conjoin with European scientists in an endeavor to decipher the disease unconscious process cause by one of the world ’s most harmful plant life pathogen , Xylella fastidiosa . The bacterium ’s impact has been nothing short of catastrophic in both the U.S. and Europe . Originating in the Americas , Xylella fastidiosa has caused a crisis in the European Union , where the bacterium was first spot in the southern heel of Italy in 2013 . Tens of thousands of gnarly European olive tree tree diagram , some of them hundreds of eld old , are withering and dying , destroying the living of crime syndicate that have swear on the 100 - old groves for generation . In California , the disease has evolved into a very serious problem for vintner , causing annual deprivation of more than $ 100 million . The European Union has train a proactive stance to foreclose spread of the disease to other regions after seeing the desolation play in Italy .
" This disease ’s capability to devastate is amazing , " said Leonardo De La Fuente , an expert on Xylella and a professor in Auburn ’s Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology .
De La Fuente first set out learn the industrial plant pathogen in 2005 as a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University . He said he was bewitch by the bacteria as a " biologic job " and continued his studies when he come to Auburn . Xylella fastidiosa was known for make Pierce ’s disease in California vineyard , and a dissimilar subspecies blighted Brazilian citrus Tree and java bushes .
" At the time , I did n’t know it was going to be a cosmopolitan problem , " De La Fuente recalled .
Xylella had never been seen before in Europe , blindsiding European scientist . They turned to American experts like De La Fuente when their European olive tree trees started dying . In 2014 , he was ask to teach a row in Spain about come forth industrial plant diseases . In 2015 , the focal point narrow down to Xylella .
" There was a caboodle of pursuit in learning how to work with it , diagnose it , find oneself it and extract it , " De La Fuente pronounce . " Then we started develop research collaborations , and mass were coming to my lab from Spain , Italy and France for aid jump - starting their research . "
Italy , Greece and Spain produce some 95 % of European olive crude , with Italy ’s contribution alone worth more than $ 2 billion each year . Spread of the disease beyond southern Italy would threaten the entire European Union economic system . Currently , the only way to completely eliminate the disease is to tear up the tree diagram in the fields and then to sharply quarantine the area in an attempt to stop the pathogen ’s spread .
" I feel like you have to respect this bacterium , because it is very good at causing incurable diseases in plant , " De La Fuente said .
snuff it trees and public opinionSpanish journalists at first nickname Xylella fastidiosa the Ebola of the flora world . Since the COVID-19 pandemic , however , coronavirus seems the better human twin . expire Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and waste groves had a psychological encroachment on people , with confederacy possibility taking root and ontogeny . Italian prosecuting attorney even opened an investigation into the scientist who first identified Xylella as the cause of the dying trees — in part because they failed to stop spread of the disease .
" citizenry did n’t think it was genuine , and they did n’t want to do anything , " De La Fuente said . " People were going on video pronounce it was a dupery , claiming that developers were destroy trees so they could bribe cheap realm . Some scientist who wanted to be in the spot were not methodical in their inquiry , rushing to release . Everybody seemed to have a root , and they were belittling other people ’s public opinion . "
Part of the reason Xylella is so pestilent is that it is equal to of attacking such a wide variety of plant species . In increase to do disease in California grapevines and Brazilian citrus fruit and coffee plants , different subspecies of Xylella cause disease in pecan and almond trees and blueberry chaparral .
These in high spirits - time value harvest can take years before they become productive , destruct the livelihoods of sodbuster and causing monolithic economical damage . In scenic wine- and olive - producing region , the fiscal loss from demolition of the harvest is exacerbated by the loss of tourism fuel local economies . replant wine grapes or olive trees , as well as pecan and Amygdalus communis tree and blueberry George Bush , can take years before they become productive .
Central American originGenetic analytic thinking suggests a Central American lineage for the bacterium , which was introduced to California over 100 years ago . Infected decorative coffee works imported from Central America , possibly decade ago , probably caused the European outbreak . Many plant species harbor the disease but are asymptomatic .
The pathogen is go around by sap - sucking insects such as leafhoppers , spittlebugs and sharpshooter and exist only in the sass of dirt ball and a plant ’s xylem system , the organization of tubes that circulates pee and nutrients from the roots to the leaves . Basically , the pathogen lives only in flow piddle and ca n’t survive in grunge or aura . The disease unconscious process is not well understood , and that is part of what capture De La Fuente .
" People make fun of me and say I like difficult systems , " he enunciate .
De La Fuente ’s lab works in two areas . First , his team studies the bacteria ’s relationship with the nutrients call for by plant and enthral in the xylem organization , since the pathogen thrives on the very same nutrient plants need to acquire . The squad has found , for illustration , that calcium pile up in septic plants and increases the virulence of the bacterium . They also have found that the plant ’s defense response may worsen the disease , in the same way that our own immune system cause autoimmune disease by attacking too sharply . They have place additional fair game proteins that may be involved in colonisation of plants by X. fastidiosa , as well .
The lab also studies how the pathogen evolves to adjust to different plants , an authoritative focus because the bacterium was not known to be so aggressive until it colonise olive trees . The squad has identified , for example , conditions that lead to exchange of cistron among X. fastidiosa cell or even X. fastidiosa and other organism . Only one other industrial plant - tie in bacterium , Ralstonia solanaceraum , is able to get deoxyribonucleic acid from the environment and incorporate the cistron into its own genome , De La Fuente said . This horizontal gene transfer — sometimes called " jumping genes"—is sleep together to sometimes make bacteria more virulent as well as more efficient in conform to a host . De La Fuente ’s team has place genes that have role in the bacterial seaworthiness and pathogenicity , which will lead to passport for disease management .
The importance of managementManagement is the key , since eradication of the disease remains an elusive finish . Perhaps tolerant cultivar of olive trees and other works can be developed , but in the interim , something has to be done to protect farmers and the economy . To that end , De La Fuente has work with colleagues in Andalusia , in southern Spain , to protect the olive groves that grow 50 % of the world ’s olive oil .
" They did a gravid job and exploit very tight to educate multitude , " he said . " They also found a different subspecies in Spanish Prunus dulcis trees and moved fast , murder the sweet almond trees . There was some pushback , but people saw the job in Italy and state , ' OK , this is actual . ' "
In Italy , he said , vital time was lose to defense and line of reasoning . In Spain , too , scientists were accused of give people concern for nothing , but De La Fuente insists that raising the alarm system was necessary .
" If you ’re a scientist raising these warning signal , though , you never acquire , " he admitted . " There ’s no mode to win . "
De La Fuente ’s enquiry is funded by home Auburn University grant , the USDA ’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture , the California Department of Food and Agriculture and European generator . His science laboratory is one of four in the U.S. that are part of the European EuroXanth price action , initiated to foster training and inquiry collaboration among different labs in Europe .
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