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Kennedy JP, Wood K, Pitino M, Mandadi K, Igwe DO, Shatters RG, Widmer TL, Niedz R, Heck M. A Perspective on Current Therapeutic Molecule Screening Methods Against ' Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus', the Presumed Causative Agent of Citrus Huanglongbing. PHYTOPATHOLOGY 2023; 113:1171-1179. [PMID: 36750555 DOI: 10.1094/phyto-12-22-0455-per] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Huanglongbing (HLB), referred to as citrus greening disease, is a bacterial disease impacting citrus production worldwide and is fatal to young trees and mature trees of certain varieties. In some areas, the disease is devastating the citrus industry. A successful solution to HLB will be measured in economics: citrus growers need treatments that improve tree health, fruit production, and most importantly, economic yield. The profitability of citrus groves is the ultimate metric that truly matters when searching for solutions to HLB. Scientific approaches used in the laboratory, greenhouse, or field trials are critical to the discovery of those solutions and to estimate the likelihood of success of a treatment aimed at commercialization. Researchers and the citrus industry use a number of proxy evaluations of potential HLB solutions; understanding the strengths and limitations of each assay, as well as how best to compare different assays, is critical for decision-making to advance therapies into field trials and commercialization. This perspective aims to help the reader compare and understand the limitations of different proxy evaluation systems based on the treatment and evaluation under consideration. The researcher must determine the suitability of one or more of these metrics to identify treatments and predict the usefulness of these treatments in having an eventual impact on citrus production and HLB mitigation. As therapies advance to field trials in the next few years, a reevaluation of these metrics will be useful to guide future research efforts on strategies to mitigate HLB and vascular bacterial pathogens in other perennial crops.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Paul Kennedy
- U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Fort Pierce, FL 34945
| | | | | | - Kranthi Mandadi
- Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Weslaco, TX 78596
- Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture, Texas A&M AgriLife, College Station, TX 77843
| | - David O Igwe
- Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
| | - Robert G Shatters
- U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Fort Pierce, FL 34945
| | - Timothy L Widmer
- U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD 20705
| | - Randall Niedz
- U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Fort Pierce, FL 34945
| | - Michelle Heck
- Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
- Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research Unit, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Ithaca, NY 14853
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Batarseh TN, Batarseh SN, Morales-Cruz A, Gaut BS. Comparative genomics of the Liberibacter genus reveals widespread diversity in genomic content and positive selection history. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1206094. [PMID: 37434713 PMCID: PMC10330825 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1206094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/09/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023] Open
Abstract
'Candidatus Liberibacter' is a group of bacterial species that are obligate intracellular plant pathogens and cause Huanglongbing disease of citrus trees and Zebra Chip in potatoes. Here, we examined the extent of intra- and interspecific genetic diversity across the genus using comparative genomics. Our approach examined a wide set of Liberibacter genome sequences including five pathogenic species and one species not known to cause disease. By performing comparative genomics analyses, we sought to understand the evolutionary history of this genus and to identify genes or genome regions that may affect pathogenicity. With a set of 52 genomes, we performed comparative genomics, measured genome rearrangement, and completed statistical tests of positive selection. We explored markers of genetic diversity across the genus, such as average nucleotide identity across the whole genome. These analyses revealed the highest intraspecific diversity amongst the 'Ca. Liberibacter solanacearum' species, which also has the largest plant host range. We identified sets of core and accessory genes across the genus and within each species and measured the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous mutations (dN/dS) across genes. We identified ten genes with evidence of a history of positive selection in the Liberibacter genus, including genes in the Tad complex, which have been previously implicated as being highly divergent in the 'Ca. L. capsica' species based on high values of dN.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah N. Batarseh
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Abraham Morales-Cruz
- U.S. Department of Energy, Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Brandon S. Gaut
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
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Cai L, Jain M, Munoz-Bodnar A, Huguet-Tapia JC, Gabriel DW. A synthetic 'essentialome' for axenic culturing of 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus'. BMC Res Notes 2022; 15:125. [PMID: 35365194 PMCID: PMC8973516 DOI: 10.1186/s13104-022-05986-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' (CLas) is associated with the devastating citrus 'greening' disease. All attempts to achieve axenic growth and complete Koch's postulates with CLas have failed to date, at best yielding complex cocultures with very low CLas titers detectable only by PCR. Reductive genome evolution has rendered all pathogenic 'Ca. Liberibacter' spp. deficient in multiple key biosynthetic, metabolic and structural pathways that are highly unlikely to be rescued in vitro by media supplementation alone. By contrast, Liberibacter crescens (Lcr) is axenically cultured and its genome is both syntenic and highly similar to CLas. Our objective is to achieve replicative axenic growth of CLas via addition of missing culturability-related Lcr genes. RESULTS Bioinformatic analyses identified 405 unique ORFs in Lcr but missing (or truncated) in all 24 sequenced CLas strains. Site-directed mutagenesis confirmed and extended published EZ-Tn5 mutagenesis data, allowing elimination of 310 of these 405 genes as nonessential, leaving 95 experimentally validated Lcr genes as essential for CLas growth in axenic culture. Experimental conditions for conjugation of large GFP-expressing plasmids from Escherichia coli to Lcr were successfully established for the first time, providing a practical method for transfer of large groups of 'essential' Lcr genes to CLas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lulu Cai
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
| | - Mukesh Jain
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
| | | | - Jose C Huguet-Tapia
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
| | - Dean W Gabriel
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
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Pierson EA, Cubero J, Roper C, Brown JK, Bock CH, Wang N. ' Candidatus Liberibacter' Pathosystems at the Forefront of Agricultural and Biological Research Challenges. PHYTOPATHOLOGY 2022; 112:7-10. [PMID: 35100014 DOI: 10.1094/phyto-12-21-0497-fi] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A Pierson
- Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2133
| | - Jaime Cubero
- Departamento de Protección Vegetal, Laboratorio Bacteriología, Centro Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA/CSIC), Madrid 28040, Spain
| | - Caroline Roper
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
| | - Judith K Brown
- School of Plant Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
| | - Clive H Bock
- United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Station, Byron, GA 31008
| | - Nian Wang
- Citrus Research and Education Center, Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, FL 33850
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