Genomics through the vineyards

2003/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika

The researchers have managed to decode the genome of the culprit that harms California vineyards. With this they hope to find new ways to fight the disease. In fact, the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa causes Pierce's disease, which has caused significant losses in this territory.

The bacterium is transmitted through insects that feed on the sap of the plants of the grape and that before podaban the shoots affected by the winegrowers to control the disease. But since the early 1990s, insects that consumed old fragments of vine plants attacked the vineyards and it was impossible to prune them without finishing the plant.

Thanks to the work done by the researchers of the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), they will be able to analyze the attack of the bacterium to the plant, so it is expected that new possibilities of solution are opened.