New species of bacteria that affect nut quality and production discovered in Portugal
Raw Walnut
Portugal
Published Oct 8, 2020
Tridge summary
Researchers from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP) have discovered a new species of pathogenic bacteria in the walnut tree that affects the quality of the nut and threatens its production in Portugal. The study, developed with the Center for Research in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO-InBIO), focused on the main species of bacteria (Xanthomonas arboricola pv. Juglandis) that causes disease in walnut, namely walnut bacteriosis.
Original content
The characteristic symptoms of walnut bacteriosis include necrotic stains on the leaves and fruits, the early fall of the nut or the death of the embryo inside the fruit, causing considerable losses of production, decreased quality of the nut and huge economic losses. Following this study, published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, the researchers discovered a new species of pathogenic bacteria, which they called Xanthomonas euroxanthea. The two strains, although very similar, differ in their ability to infect walnut, which may be useful to identify new genes involved in this pathology. Leonor Martins, first author of the article, explains that this is the “first time that pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains of the same species of Xanthomonas are observed to colonize the same plant (...) These results are quite promising, as the scientific community it now has a favorable model for the study of the emergence and evolution of ...
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