1,721,119 research outputs found
Insect-borne prokaryote-associated diseases in tropical and subtropical perennial crops (TROPICSAFE)
No full textThe project aims to address economically important insect-borne prokaryote-associated diseases of perennial crops (palm, citrus and grapevine) grown in tropical and subtropical areas which are seriously affecting the trade and import of agricultural products and materials worldwide. These diseases are due to the presence of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma’ associated with “lethal yellowing” in palms and “yellows” in grapevine, and ‘Ca. Liberibacter’ associated with “Huanglongbing” in citrus. These diseases could also present a possible threat to EU agriculture as a result of accelerated climate change that the EU is facing nowadays. The management of these diseases will be focused on tropical and subtropical areas in Africa (Ghana, South Africa and Reunion), the Americas (Mexico, Chile) and the Caribbean (Guadalupe, Jamaica, Cuba), and subtropical regions in Europe (Spain). Prevalence of the aforementioned diseases is severe in these areas, giving rise to social and economic threats, affecting local agriculture and export of products internationally and, in particular, to the EU. Knowledge and technologies available in the EU countries will be deployed in tropical and subtropical regions for carrying out epidemiologic studies aimed at filling gaps in our knowledge (including climatic and cultural factors); integrated pest management strategies based on innovative diagnostic and prevention tools; reduced insecticide treatments; use of defence elicitors and improved resistant germplasm; and pest risk assessment schemes. The project will evaluate the economical sustainability and the industrial relevance of the proposed solutions, and will assess the social impact of these diseases, and the distributive effects in the target countries. Local plant protection organizations, farmers and producers will actively participate as partners and/or in the Stakeholder Advisory Board, taking part in field trials, demonstration and exploitation of the results
A project to control “flavescence dorée” outbreaks in hilly areas of the Treviso district (north-eastern Italy).
No full textCoordination and collaboration between reference collections of plant pests and diseases for EU plant health policy
No full textInternational trade is increasing tremendously in recent years with a lot of import and export material going in and
out of the European Union. Within this context there is also the increasing risk of importing unwanted organisms
via this trade. Organisms include plant pests and pathogens, some of which may be on the quarantine list of
the European Union. Also climate change may increase the ability of plant pests to survive regions other than
those of their origin. Within the field of Plant Health a decline in taxonomic and phytosanitary experience has
become eminent in the last decade; also relevant phytosanitary collections are under pressure. This will affect
all members of the EU and other nations as well. To regulate and control plant pathogens there is an increasing
need for efficient and reliable identification and detection tools. For their development and validation, good
and well maintained collections containing relevant species are indispensable. A significant number of plant
pest collections are still present within Europe but they are dispersed, widespread and of very variable quality.
NPPO’s, mandated laboratories, universities and research institutes all have their own collections related to their
specific work and scope. Many of these collections are connected to a single specialist. Within Europe there is a
need to improve the infrastructure supporting phytosanitary important collections so as to more efficiently use the
available infrastructure and improve collaboration in the field of phytosanitary infrastructure with regard to means,
knowledge, expertise on taxonomy, development of detection methods and collections of phytosanitary important
organisms. The main outputs to be disseminated from the project will include an inventory on characteristics of
phytosanitary important collections within Europe and guidelines to improve quality standards and access and to
design and build sustainable networks of reference collections
DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW DIAGNOSTIC TOOL USING DNA BARCODING TO IDENTIFY QUARANTINE ORGANISMS IN SUPPORT OF PLANT HEALTH - QBOL
No full textDevelopment of accurate identification tools for plant pathogens and pests is vital to support European
Plant Health Policies. For this project Council Directive 2000/29/EC is important, listing some 275
organisms for which protective measures against introduction into and their spread within the
Community needs to be taken. Those threats are now greater than ever because of the increases in the
volumes, commodity types and origins of trade, the introduction of new crops, the continued expansion
of the EU and the impact of climate change.
Currently identifying pathogens (in particular new emerging diseases) requires a staff with specialised
skills in all disciplines (mycology, bacteriology, etc.); which is only possible within big centralised
laboratory facilities. Taxonomy, phytopathology and other fields which are vital for sustaining sound
public policy on phytosanitary issues are threatened with extinction.
Modern molecular identification/detection techniques may tackle the decline in skills since they often
require much less specialist skills to perform, are more amenable for routine purposes and can be used
for a whole range of different target organisms. Recently DNA barcoding has arisen as a robust and
standardised approach to species identification. QBOL wants now to make DNA barcoding available for
plant health diagnostics and to focus on strengthening the link between traditional and molecular
taxonomy as a sustainable diagnostic resource.
Within QBOL collections harbouring plantpathogenic Q-organisms will be made available. Informative
genes from selected species on the EU Directive and EPPO lists will be DNA barcoded from vouchered
specimens. The sequences, together with taxonomic features, will be included in a new internet-based
database system. A validation procedure on developed protocols and the database will be undertaken
across worldwide partners to ensure robustness of procedures for use in a distributed network of
laboratories across Europe
Integrated Management of Phytoplasma Epidemics in Different Crop Systems
No full textPhytoplasmas are insect-transmitted plant pathogenic prokaryotes causing serious diseases in important crops such as grapevine, vegetables, corn, sugar beet, oil-seed crops and fruit trees throughout Europe. Recent advances in phytoplasma genomics have generated an impetus for research into control and management of these diseases. This Action will integrate European phytoplasma research, enabling research funds to be used more efficiently by reducing duplication of efforts. New approaches for disease management based on understanding the phytoplasma-plant interaction at a molecular level will be achieved. This will result in improved diagnostic methods; reduction of disease spread; improvement of insect-vector monitoring and a reduction in the pesticides used for control. Knowledge-transfer will be enhanced through meetings, workshops for agro industry, website, newsletters and scientific publications. Early-stage researchers and scientists from COST countries will be encouraged to participate in lab exchanges, and public understanding of phytoplasma diseases will be increased. The goal of this Action is to promote information exchange in order to design integrated phytoplasma management strategies for the sustainable production of high-quality plant products and to reduce pesticide use, resulting in less residues in fresh market products: fruits, vegetables and grapevine
Dissecting the phloem-specific responses of different grapevine cultivars to “flavescence dorée” phytoplasma
No full textSerbian-Italian Cooperation through researchers mobility within Erasmus Mundus Program
No full textMutual interests in agricultural research provide continuous opportunity for cooperation
among Serbian and Italian institutions. Recently, bilateral cooperation between Serbia
and Italy was implemented through the postdoctoral research of Dr. Katarina Gašic,
research associate from the Institute for Plant Protection and Environment, Belgrade,
Serbia. Dr. Gašic spent nine months on a postdoctoral scholarship (2014-2015),
received from the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 - Join EU-SEE IV Program, at the
University of Bologna, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Laboratory of
Phytobacteriology, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Assunta Bertaccini. During her
stay, Dr. Gašic also visited the Department of Life Sciences of the University of
Modena and Reggio Emilia and participated to a research on the management of seed
transmitted bacteria, that was part of the ongoing project: EU-FP7 Project
„Development of seed testing methods for pests and pathogens of plant health concern
(TESTA; www.seedtesta.eu)“, under the supervision of Prof. Emilio Stefani; and
III46008 project “Development of integrated management of harmful organisms in plant
production in order to overcome resistance and to improve food quality and safety”,
coordinator Prof. Aleksa Obradovic, financed by Ministry of Education, Science and
Technological Development, Republic of Serbia
Phytoplasmas: an update
No full textA summary of the research carried out on phytoplasma-associated diseases 50 years after their discovery is presented. The great majority of the research was devoted to classification and differentiation of these prokaryotes by molecular and bioinformatic tools applied to specific phytoplasma genes. The availability of a robust classification system has greatly facilitated phytoplasma identification leading to an increased knowledge of plant diseases worldwide. Scientific knowledge on phytoplasma biology still needs to be improved to allow better management solutions to reduce the impact of these diseases in agricultural and natural environments
Grapevine collections free from pathogens: tools and their application
No full textThe grapevine collections are very important tools to maintain grapevine biodiversity and historical germoplasm as well however in several cases especially grapevine from poor cultivated or non commercial varieties could be infected by several graft transmissible pathogens such as viruses, phytoplasmas and other systemic bacteria. In the majority of the cases these pathogens are not inducing evident symptomatology in short time after grafting therefore the possibly infected material of collection could represent a dangerous pathogen reservoir.
In order to control pathogen presence in already made collections and to prevent the spreading of the above pathogens together with the grapevine germplasm to other collections. Then, it is mandatory to exclude presence of quarantine pathogens such as “flavescece dorée” (FD) phytoplasmas and advisable to exclude relevant pathogens for quality such as viruses and phytoplasmas agent of “bois noir”, by using the most sensitive detection techniques available. It is advisable however to acquire any possible information concerning the phytosanitary status of the circulating grapevine material in order to prevent possible unforeseen outbreak of disease such as those occurred for FD disease when a grapevine insect such as Scaphoideus titanus (previously named Scaphoideus littoralis) was introduced in Europe. It is known in fact that a high number of different phytoplasmas are able to infect grapevine worldwide in the presence of appropriate insect vector or by grafting or micropropagation techniques application and crown gall is an old severely remerging disease at least in the major viticultural areas of EU and US.
First step before transferring germplasm among collection must be the verification of their sanitary status taking into account that tests to verify virus and bacteria presence should be carried out preferably during winter/spring time while those to detect phytoplasmas are more sensitive in Summer and Fall periods and the most sensitive techniques such as ELISA and PCR must be employed.
In the case of germplasm having no clean plants available after the survey it is necessary to clean the material using thermotherapy and or shoot tip culture in order to eliminate the pathogens. These techniques are not eliminating the pathogens from all the produced material therefore molecular tests are again necessary to assess the grapevine health status before the material can be employed for collection and/or field dissemination. In case of virus or phytoplasma infected grapevine germplasm of unique genetic value it must be maintained under insect proof condition while it is infected in order to avoid contamination of other germplasm in the same collection. In the same way the clean germplams should also be protected in insect proof environment in order to avoid its recontamination. It is also very important to keep the collection clean from insect that are virus (mealy bugs and scale insects) or phytoplasma vectors (leafhopper and cixiids) and also the soil must be clean from Agrobacterium tumefaciens and collection should be protected from frost or mechanical damages increasing crown gall dissemination
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