Preventing and Treating Citrus Huanglongbing and Potato Zebra Chip Crop Diseases
SLU ID 23-007| A new treatment strategy for several plant diseases
Intellectual Property Status
Seeking
Patent-ability under review
Proprietary non-patented intellectual property
Know-how based
Licensee
Development partner
Commercial partner
Investment
University spin out
Background
Liberibacter pathogens are the causative agents of several severe crop diseases worldwide, including citrus Huanglongbing (HLB) and potato zebra chip (ZC). Currently, no effective cure or treatments are available, and no resistant citrus or potato strains have been found.
Overview
Researchers at Saint Louis University have successfully identified several pathogenicity factors that are present in all Liberibacter pathogens. This provides the basis for a new disease control approach. The research is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Benefits
The potential benefits of this technology include:
Minimizing the percentage of citrus crops that are lost due to HLB
Minimizing the percentage of potato crops that are lost due to ZC.
Increasing the yields of citrus crops.
Increasing the yields of potato crops.
Applications
The potential applications of this technology include citrus and potato farming.
Opportunity
Saint Louis University is seeking a partner to further develop and commercialize this technology.
References
Tan, Y., Wang, C., Schneider, T., Li, H., de Souza, R. F., Tang, X., Grimm, K. D. S., Hsieh, T., Wang, X., Li, X., & Zhang, D. (2021). Comparative phylogenomic analysis reveals evolutionary genomic changes and novel toxin families in endophytic Liberibacter pathogens. Microbiology spectrum, 9(2), e00509-21. https://doi.org/10.1128/Spectrum.00509-21