The state of São Paulo (SSP) is the first sweet orange growing region in the world. Yet, the SSP citrus industry has been, and still is, under constant attack from various diseases. In the 1940s, tristeza-quick decline (T-QD) was responsible for the death of 9 million trees in SSP. The causal agent was a new virus, citrus tristeza virus (CTV). The virus was efficiently spread by aphid vectors, ...

Plant diseases are a significant constraint to agricultural productivity. Exotic plant diseases pose a continued threat to profitable agriculture in the United States. The extent of this threat has increased dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s due to the expansion of international trade in agricultural products and frequent movement of massive volume of people and goods across national boundari...

Plants produce considerable amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with several biological functions, including protection against biotic agents such as viruses and their vectors. In citrus species, these metabolites can be related different susceptibility/tolerance toward the Tristeza virus (CTV), one main constraints for industry. The objective this study was to compare VOCs pattern fro...

Chlorotic fleck, a strawberry disease caused by a graft and aphid transmissible agent, was identified more than 45 years ago in Louisiana. Since its discovery there has been no additional information on the agent that causes the disease. The mode of transmission implies that a virus is the causal agent of chlorotic fleck. We identified four closteroviruses in the single chlorotic fleck infected...