Xylella fastidiosa subsp. pauca and multiplex elicit differential responses in a susceptible olive cultivar

Abstract

In this work, we compared under greenhouse conditions, the response of the olive cultivar “Cellina di Nardò” to infections caused by the strains De Donno (subsp. pauca, ST53) and ESVL (subsp. multiplex, ST6), as this cultivar is one of the most susceptible in the Italian outbreak. The data showed that: (I) strain De Donno systemically colonized the plants faster than the strain ESLV; (II) 1.5 years post-inoculation, the bacterial population detected in the plants systemically infected was ~25 times higher for strain De Donno than ESLV; (III) a severe shoot dieback were detected on the De Donno-infected plants, whereas up to 3 years post-inoculation no dieback and desiccations have been recorded on the ESLV-infected plants.