Preventing and Treating Citrus Huanglongbing and Potato Zebra Chip Crop Diseases

SLU ID 23-007| A new treatment strategy for several plant diseases

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