Cooperative efforts contained spread of Pierce's disease and found genetic resistance

Abstract

An outbreak of Pierce's disease of grapevine in the Temecula Valley in the late 1990s was one in a decades-long series of sporadic appearances of this infection in California. However, the new outbreak was qualitatively different because of the rapidity with which it spread in the vineyard and its appearance almost simultaneously at distant locations. The causative agent of Pierce's disease is the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, and the distinct characteristics of the Temecula Valley outbreak were traced to the establishment of a new insect vector in California, the glassy-winged sharpshooter. Intensive and collaborative efforts among government agencies, industry and research institutions over 15 years have successfully contained the disease, and given scientists time to discover promising long-term potential solutions through genetic resistance.

Predicting the fundamental thermal niche of crop pests and diseases in a changing world: A case study on citrus greening

“…The costs of implementing such a strict control strategy may be prohibitive, but it gives hope for the industry that control is possible, especially if implemented as soon as HLB is discovered (Belasque et al, ). Similarly, for other vector‐borne diseases of crops and crop pests, successful management and control are possible if implemented quickly and extensively after disease or pest emergence (Bruening et al, ; Enkerlin et al, ). Overall, our suitability maps provide an additional tool, alongside modelling of intervention strategies, cost–benefit analysis, experimental studies, development of disease‐resistant trees and other inventions, in the fight against vector‐borne crop diseases and pests.…”

“…The quality and quantity of yields for many crop systems can be significantly reduced by pests and disease. For example, the wheat aphid reduces yields of grain crops (Merrill, Holtzer, Peairs, & Lester, ), Pierce's disease vectored by the glassy‐winged sharpshooter diminishes grape yields (Bruening, Kirkpatrick, Esser, & Webster, ), codling moth damages apple orchards (Rafoss & Sæthre, ), and Huanglongbing (HLB) vectored by the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) decimates citrus crops (da Graça et al, ). The pests and/or vectors of disease are often small arthropods that are sensitive to environmental conditions, including temperature and humidity (Mordecai et al, ; Tsai, Wang, & Liu, ).…”

Transmission of phage by glassy-winged sharpshooters, a vector ofXylella fastidiosa

“… 12-14 The recent establishment of the GWSS ( Homalodisca vitripennis ) in California now threatens the major portion of wine and table grape production in the US. 15 Previous vector studies with GWSSs have focused on the acquisition and transmission of Xf . 14,16 In these studies, the GWSSs were allowed to feed on infected tissue and then allowed to feed on non-infected tissue to qualitatively determine acquisition and the transfer efficiency.…”

Lessons from One Fastidious Bacterium to Another: What Can We Learn about Liberibacter Species from Xylella fastidiosa

“…The deluge of information about the pathogen, insect vector, and host tolerances was successfully leveraged for control of Pierce’s disease in grape using a multi-pronged management strategy [25]. A major component of this strategy focused on control of the GWSS using containment, detection, rapid response, and outreach [25]. Containment involved the regulation of nursery stock and bulk grape shipments from infected areas, certification programs and the removal of infected vines.…”

“…Outreach improved the compliance with the aforementioned efforts among growers and the public via educational efforts. In tandem with control of the GWSS, conventional breeding and genetic engineering produced grapevines with increased resistance to Pierce’s disease [25,26]. Pierce’s disease is now well managed in California, to the credit of this holistic management plan.…”