Optimització dels mètodes de detecció, prevenció i control del foc bacterià de les rosàcies a Espanya

This project is proposed to answer several questions concerning the epidemiology and control of fire blight in Spain, a quarantine bacterial disease in the European Community which kill several species of rosaceous plants, specially apple, pear and ornamental plants of economic importance. The project is composed of three subprojects which are coordinated, with the participation of two research groups groups specialized in epidemiology and control of plant bacterial diseases (University of Girona and Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research), and a third groups which is specialized in molecular bacterial ecology (UAB). The objectives are: (1) to obtain data to \b establish the origin of foci of fire blight in Spain \b0 by means of phenotypic and molecular characterization of isolates of \i E. amylovora; \i0 2) to determinate the \b role of latent infections in syymptomless plant material; \b0 3) to \b optimize sensitivity ans specificity of serological and molecualr detection methods \b0 including colorimetric and flurimetric techniques; 4) to use \b marker assisted selection and screening of new biological control agents; \b0 5) to\b evaluate new control methods based on elicitation of plant host defenses and bioprotection\b0; and 6) to \b assure the efficacy of current erradication methods \b0 used for control of foci of fire blight