Xylella, from emergency to management

All commercially cultivated European grapevines (Vitis vinifera) are considered susceptible to Pierces disease (PD) caused by the xylem-limited bacterium Xylella fastidiosa (Wilcox et al. 2015). PD causes vine losses and is the primary limiting factor to grape...

In the framework of the monitoring campaign annually carried out in the Apulia region (southern Italy) to tackle the epidemic of X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca decimating olive trees, an outbreak of Xylella fastidiosa subsp. multiplex was discovered in 2024 with almond...

The introduction of Xylella fastidiosa, a plant pathogen with a broad host range, poses a significant threat to agriculture and natural ecosystems. We analyzed six X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa strains obtained from the Beira Interior region of Portugal, an area...

When pathogens are repeatedly introduced into new environments, host jumps may occur into naïve taxa. Given the magnitude of the global plant trade, this process can lead to frequent disease emergence as interactions between previously isolated pathogens and new...

Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) is a xylem-limited quarantine phytobacterium representing a serious threat to European and Mediterranean agriculture and landscape, where outbreaks caused by strains belonging to three subspecies have been reported in Italy, France,...

Pseudogenes are regarded as “junk” DNA, representing vestigial functions no longer needed for fitness. Accordingly, a higher number of pseudogenes in a bacterial human pathogen was previously hypothesized to be a hallmark of host specialists. In this study, we...

Fossils and other preserved specimens are integral for informing timing and evolutionary history in every biological system. By isolating a plant pathogen genome from herbarium-preserved diseased grapevine material from 1906 (Herb_1906), we were able to answer...