Due to the continuous use of copper containing bactericides without effective alternative bactericides, copper resistance has become more prevalent in plant pathogens, including Xanthomonas euvesicatoria pv. perforans (formerly Xanthomonas perforans), a predominant cause of bacterial leaf spot disease of tomato and pepper in the Southeastern United States.
Bacterial spot caused by spp. is a significant disease that challenges pepper growers worldwide and is particularly severe in a hot and humid environment. Understanding the pathogen’s population biology is critical for sustainable disease management. The goal of this study was to characterize the species, race, and bactericide sensitivity of bacterial spot-associated Xanthomonas collected from pepper in Florida.
Watermelon is an important crop in Florida, representing $88.2 million in cash receipts in 2015 (USDA/NASS 2017). In April and May 2021, the UF/IFAS Plant Diagnostic Center in Gainesville, Florida received eight diseased watermelon leaf samples from Alachua, Gilcrest, Levy, and Suwannee counties in Florida. Lesions were round to oblong, light gray to tan with reddish brown margins and white to light gray center, and some were coalescing resulting in about 15% disease severity.
A UF professor deploys unusual methods in the field to investigate bacteria that infect tomato and pepper crops.
UF/EPI mathematical disease modeler Burton Singer has coauthored a book chapter reviewing the epidemiology of citrus greening.
UF plant pathologists affiliated with both IFAS and the EPI earned the distinction of having a “top-viewed” poster at the virtual annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society.
When it comes to managing risks to food crops from pathogens, landscape connections may be just as key to the spread of diseases as are networked trade routes and a changing climate.
A known pathogenic fungus, so far only reported to cause disease in two crops, has ensnared a third victim: eggplants. UF plant pathologists affiliated with both UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the EPI, were the first to describe Lasiodiplodia hormozganensis’s jump to a new host.
A new study adds four additional species to the growing list of palm trees susceptible to lethal bronzing disease, for a revised total of 16. Researchers with UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute and the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences sampled hundreds of palms in Florida to identify the new hosts, all of which are common ornamentals found throughout central and southern portions of the state. They also found the disease has spread to eight new counties.
proposed global surveillance system would act as a bulwark against diseases that threaten food crops. UF plant pathologist Karen Garrett, who is affiliated with both IFAS and the EPI, coauthored a policy paper in Science outlining a visionary system that would link existing local and national programs to identify, predict, monitor and mitigate outbreaks of emerging crop diseases.
