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American Phytopathological Society
While many celebrate apple blossoms as classic signs of spring, they are also welcoming entry gates for pathogens. Full of nutrients to lure pollinators and promote pollen germination, flowers also attract bacteria like Erwinia amylavora, a pathogen that causes a damaging disease called fire blight. However, recent work by scientists at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station suggests that these flowery infection sites might also be perfect targets for applying microbial fire blight biocontrol measures.
In a paper recently published in Phytobiomes Journal, researchers Zhouqi Cui, Regan Huntley, Neil Schultes, Blaire Steven, and Quan Zeng found that treating apple flowers with a probiotic spray reduced incidence of fire blight. They sprayed blooming trees with different strains of bacteria isolated from apple flowers and then exposed the same blooms to the fire blight pathogen. After this inoculation, they sampled the floral microbiomes
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IMAGE: Researchers applying probiotic sprays to blooming apple trees at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. view more
Credit: Zhouqi Cui, Regan B. Huntley, Neil P. Schultes, Blaire Steven, and Quan Zeng
While many celebrate apple blossoms as classic signs of spring, they are also welcoming entry gates for pathogens. Full of nutrients to lure pollinators and promote pollen germination, flowers also attract bacteria like
Erwinia amylavora, a pathogen that causes a damaging disease called fire blight. However, recent work by scientists at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station suggests that these flowery infection sites might also be perfect targets for applying microbial fire blight biocontrol measures.