The UC Riverside issued a press release yesterday announcing that biology professor Leonard Nunney received a $1.75 million grant from the USDA to study the Xyella plant pathogen, which is causing serious diseases in a wide range of agricultural and horticultural crops. According to the release, there are three main Xylella subspecies found in North America: fastidiosa, which causes Pierces disease in grapes and almonds, sandyi on oleanders, day lilies, magnolias and jacarandas, and multiplex on almonds, brittlebushes, sages, olives, oaks, plums and peaches.
"There are several puzzles about this bacterium," Nunny was quoted in the news release. "If you find Xylella on a certain plant, you can't predict what else it might be found on. . . . We need to understand what it is about these plants that makes each type of Xylella favor them."
This grant and Nunnery's work is sure to generate interest in the the ag media as well as general news outlets.
