The two acknowledged vectors of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’ in north-western Italy, the psyllid Cacopsylla melanoneura and the leafhopper Fieberiella florii, have been compared to highlight their role in the apple proliferation epidemiology in relation to their infectivity, transmission efficiency and permanence in apple orchards and in wild vegetation, predominantly hawthorn formations. The ...

The phytopathogen Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii DC283 causes Stewart's wilt disease in corn after transmission from the corn flea beetle insect vector. Here, we report that the complete annotated genome of P. stewartii DC283 has been fully assembled into one circular chromosome, 10 circular plasmids, and one linear phage.

INTRODUCTION Homalodisca coagulata Say, the glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS) is known to transmit the etiological agent of Pierce’s disease, Xylella fastidiosa. A paratransgenic approach designed to disrupt the ability of the insect vector to transmit the pathogen involves finding bacterial candidates that possess some degree of intimacy either within the insect and/or host plant xylem. Once a...

The principal families of insect vectors which cause the most damage to agricultural crops through the spread of plant diseases are in the order Hemiptera, and include the aphids, leafhoppers, delphacid planthoppers and whiteflies. Another important group of insect vectors found worldwide is the order Thysanoptera, the thrips. Other insects also spread plant diseases; however, aphids alone are ...

After a long history of applying the sterile insect technique to suppress populations of disease vectors and agricultural pests, there is growing interest in using genetic engineering both to improve old methods and to enable new methods. The two goals of interventions are to suppress populations, possibly eradicating a species altogether, or to abolish the vector's competence to transmit a par...