Sustainable Management of Phytoplasma Diseases in Crops Grown in the Tropical Belt

Chrystel Olivier is a Research Scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Saskatoon Research and Development Centre (AAFC) since 2001. Her research interests includes phytoplasma disease epidemiology and management in field crops. Her lab worked extensively on aster yellow disease epidemiology and control in canola and cereal crops and on leafhopper population associated with the disease. Tim J. Dumonceaux has been a Research Scientist at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Saskatoon Research and Development Centre (AAFC) since 2009. His research interests include molecular diagnostics of plant and animal pathogens, the impacts of microbial communities on a variety of agricultural ecosystems, and the applications of white-rot fungi in the production of biofuels. His lab has developed a suite of tools for identifying and characterizing phytoplasmas based on the universal microbial barcode chaperonin-60 (cpn60), and he maintains an interest in applying thesetools to the detection, characterization, and quantification of phytoplasma infections in plant and insect tissues. Edel Pérez-López is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, Biology Department, working with clubroot and the soil-borne obligate parasite Plasmodiophora brassicae, although he keeps actively collaborating in research projects related to the identification and characterization of phytoplasmas in South America, Saudi Arabia and Canada. Edel has been working with phytoplasmas affecting crops in Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Canada, and Saudi Arabia since 2012, working also on the development of diagnostic methods to identify and characterize this group of plant pathogenic bacteria.

• 1. The CpnClassiPhyR Facilitates Phytoplasma Classification and Taxonomy using cpn60 Universal Target Sequences.- 2. Epidemiology of Non-Culturable Phloem-Limited Pathogens of Citrus; Case Study Phytoplasma.- 3. Occurrence and Distribution of Phytoplasma Diseases in Iran.- 4. Diversity of Phytoplasmas in Cuba, their Geographic Isolation and Potential Development of Management Strategies.- 5. Integrated Management of Napier Grass Stunt Disease in East Africa.- 6. Mineral and Plant Oils as Management Tools to Control Insect Vectors of Phytoplasmas.- 7. Phytoplasma Diseases Affecting Cassava.- 8. Management of Phytoplasmas in Urban Trees.- 9. Biological Control of the Leafhopper Dalbulus Maidis in Corn Throughout the Americas: Interaction among Phytoplasma- Insect Vector- Parasitoids.- 10. The Resistance of Jujube Trees to Jujube Witches’ Broom Disease in China.- 11. Integrated Management of Coconut Lethal Yellowing Phytoplasma Disease in Mozambique: Current Challenges and Future perspectives.- 12. Impact and Management of Major Phytoplasma Diseases in Brazil.