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Introduction
Publications
Publications (127)
This collaborative work by over 180 researchers from 40+ countries addresses the challenges posed by "phantom agents"-putative patho-genic agents named in literature without supporting data on their existence. Those agents remain on regulatory lists, creating barriers in trade and plant certification. Historically identified based solely on symptom...
Background
Pesticides-induced mortality has traditionally been the toxicological endpoint on which a chemical is selected for pest management strategies. However, the exposure to a pesticide might also cause behavioral alterations that can dramatically affect the dynamics of pest-plant interaction. Understanding these non-lethal effects is crucial...
Citrus crop in Chlef valley showed many cases of decline and other typical symptoms of tristeza disease in old and young trees grafted on various rootstock and seedlings acquired from multiple origins in the valley. In order to decipher the reasons of the this citrus quick decline syndrome, a large scale survey of citrus tristeza virus (CTV) and it...
In summary, our rapid method of extraction and direct detection of honey bee viruses by the developed Bee-TSE can: (i) be easily used without any professional equipment for extraction process; (ii) avoids toxicity of using different environmentally unfriendly substances; (iii) reduces the risk of RNase contamination and other cross-contaminations d...
Strengthening Plant Health research is a major challenge for Mediterranean countries. The diversity and fragmentation of the research landscape in this region
have weakened the impacts of national efforts. Mediterranean countries can benefit
from coordination of research activities to increase efficiency and impacts. The initiative ‘Plant health re...
It's a research work on agrobiodiversity, devoted to the role of naturally occuring herbaceous plants within citrus orchards that can play in citrus aphid pests management.
Xylella fastidiosa (Wells 1987, hereafter Xf), the causal agent of several devastating plant diseases, is threatening new countries of the Euro-Mediterranean, Balkans, Middle East, and North Africa (MENA) regions. In this perspective, a study was carried out to: a) explore the potential establishment and spread and losses caused by Xf in Euro-Medit...
From June to November 2021, a survey has been conducted to identify the practices, the needs, and the gaps in organic fruit production of apple, pear, apricot, peach, plum, cherry and orange. 149 fruit growers and 100 technical advisors were surveyed in a total of 26 countries. Nine European countries represent 80% of the respondents. The experienc...
A small-scale survey was conducted on 12 beehives located in the Gharb region of Morocco in order to assess for the first time the presence of honey bee-infecting viruses in the country. A total of 240 individual bee samples were screened for seven honey bee viruses using reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. Among the infected samples, 41.7% contained o...
The Orange Spiny Whitefly (OSW) Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) represents a new serious threat to Citrus spp., grapevine and ornamental plants in the whole Mediterranean area. Such threat urgently calls for the development of a sustainable control strategy, including insecticides compatible with biological control, and applicable...
Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) is currently causing great concern in the Moroccan greenhouse tomato industry, where it produces important economic losses. A survey was conducted from October 2015 to April 2016 on PepMV in seven different regions throughout Morocco. In a few plants, severe symptoms which could be associated to the virus were observed....
Huanglongbing disease affects the Rutaceae family and is associated with three phloem-limited bacterium species: Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, africanus and americanus. These species are considered quarantine pathogens in the world, and pose major risks for citrus production and industry.
Due to the low titer and the uneven distribution of th...
Spiroplasma citri is the causal agent of Citrus Stubborn Disease (CSD) on cultivated citrus in the arid and semi-arid climate. Detection and characterization of this agent at the early stage of infection in citrus orchard and young citrus saplings in the nursery is of utmost importance to prevent the introduction and spread of the disease in Spirop...
A large‐scale survey of Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) was carried out from 2016 to 2018 in the Chlef Valley, one of the main citrus growing areas in Algeria. In this study a total of 1680 citrus trees from 93 commercial orchards were sampled. The collected samples were tested by direct tissue blot immunoassay analysis and by the double antibody sandw...
Citrus stubborn disease (CSD) is caused by a Gram-positive bacterium, Spiroplasma citri, and is an endemic, but manageable, citrus disease. CSD-affected trees are low yielding but a key problem is that its symptoms are similar to and easily mistaken for Huanglongbing (HLB), a devastating citrus disease controlled by quarantine and eradication. Ther...
During autumn, an extensive survey was conducted in pepper (Capsicum annum L.) in intensive cultivation areas of four provinces in southeastern Turkey (Adana, Kahramanmaraş, Mersin and Şanlıurfa) in order to identify the causal agent (s) of phytoplasma‐like symptoms (chlorosis, little‐leaf, short internodes and stunting). DNA amplification by PCR a...
Citrus is one of the most popular fruit crops cultivated in Algeria. The major citrus production regions is situated in the Mitidja area in the Northern part of the country. In order to assess the presence of Spiroplasma citri, the causal agent of citrus stubborn disease, a field survey was carried out during the summer on two citrus varietal colle...
The invasive stink bug Halyomorpha halys is established in many European and American agro-ecosystems, where it causes severe crop losses. Potential control measures might include enhancement of plant defences. When attacked by herbivorous insects that oviposit on it, the plant may respond by priming direct defences, which might affect the developm...
Despite the fact that natural enemies can synergistically contribute to herbivore pest suppression, sometimes predators engage in intraguild predation (IGP) that might dampen trophic cascades. DNA-based gut-content analysis has become common in assessing trophic connections and biocontrol potential by predators in field systems. Here, we developed...
Field observation in citrus orchards in Chlef valley showed many cases of decline and other typical symptoms of tristeza disease mostly in plants grafted on sour orange which is the dominant rootstock in the valley. A survey of citrus tristeza virus (CTV) was carried out during the spring of 2016 to evaluate its current situation and to identify th...
This study has two main approaches. First, it exploits the susceptibility of tomato cultivars as a prophylactic measure to detect auto resistance characters of the tested tomato varieties against Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae). Secondly, it evaluates the efficacy of different bio-rational insecticides against B.Tabaci under gre...
Stigma/style somatic embryogenesis (SE) is proved to be effective in the complete elimination of the main Citrus virus and virus-like diseases in 100 % of analysed cases. In the present research SE was applied on 13 genotypes, belonging to the Algerian germplasm collection of two different Citrus species (Citrus limon and C. sinensis) infected by o...
Following the first finding of Hop stunt viroid (HSVd) in Syria (Abou Kubaa et al., 2011), a
survey of citrus was conducted during the summer 2013 to investigate the presence of other
viroids in the country. Leaf samples were collected from 65 stunted trees from four commercial
orchards located in Lattakia and Tartous, the most important citrus-pro...
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) is universally one of the most important vegetable crops worldwide. In Egypt, the crop is cultivated annually in 2-3 plantations. The tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the recent devastating pests attacking tomato crop in several countries. It is a new exotic pest in Egyp...
A study to evaluate the pathogenicity of entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi against the peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae) was carried out under laboratory conditions. The nematodes species tested were; Heterorhabditis bacteriophora; Steinernema carpocapsae and S. riobrave. The fungi were; Metarhizium anisopliae...
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) is universally one of the most important vegetable crops worldwide. In Egypt, the crop is cultivated annually in 2-3 plantations. The tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the recent devastating pests attacking tomato crop in several countries. It is a new exotic pest in Egyp...
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) is universally one of the most important vegetable crops worldwide. In Egypt, the crop is cultivated annually in 2-3 plantations. The tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the recent devastating pests attacking tomato crop in several countries. It is a new exotic pest in Egyp...
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) is the causal agent of devastating epidemics that have changed the course of citrus industry worldwide. Sixty-eight Mediterranean and eight exotic CTV isolates were characterized based on sequence divergence within the 5’ terminal genomic region and the major coat protein gene (CP). Different genotype profiles were assig...
Citrus is one of the main fruit crops of Lebanon, covering
a surface area of ca. 10,000 ha and accounting for 8%
of the total area given over to woody crops. The major citrus
production regions are in the South and North of the
country and along the coastal area. Citrus variegation virus
(CVV), the causal agent of infectious variegation disease,
is...
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) induces typical quick decline when citrus trees are grafted onto the sour orange. The virus is efficiently vectored by different aphid species. Large scale CTV monitoring and eradication requires a precise sampling and testing method for assessing virus incidence. The sampling procedure described by Hughes and Gottwald (...
Citrus stubborn disease caused by Spiroplasma citri is a limiting factor for
citrus production in countries with desert or semi-arid conditions in the
Mediterranean basin. In order to develop a PCR assay specific and sensitive for
detecting Mediterranean S. citri strains, three new PCR primers were designed
based on repetitive sequences annotated a...
Two homogeneous Italian Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) populations associated with quick decline and seedling yellows were behind the heavy losses on Navelina and Tarocco sweet oranges along the Apulia region and the South-Eastern of Sicily, respectively. The genetic divergence between selected isolates was assessed by sequencing the p25 major coat pr...
Citrus psorosis virus (CPsV) is one of the oldest known
graft-transmissible viruses of citrus. It causes typical bark
scaling lesions in the trunk and limb of sweet orange, mandarin,
grapefruit and other citrus spp. During spring 2011,
a total of 250 symptomatic and asymptomatic trees, including
100 from a mother block in Lattakia governorate and
1...
Present study proved the effectiveness attract and kill strategy to combat fruit flies up to small scale orchards of one hectare. This system can used for large scale area wide control of fruit by using male and female attract kill
system together in the same orchard. Biorational strategy can be used as an alternative to conventional pesticide app...
Xylella fastidiosa has recently been identified in the
Apulian province of Lecce (south-eastern Italy) in olive
trees affected by a devastating disease denoted Olive
Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS), that appeared suddenly
in 2010. Symptoms of OQDS consist of withering
and desiccation of scattered terminal shoots, which rapidly
expands to the rest of...
Abstract
DTBIA technique has been compared with ELISA and PCR in the diagnosis of Xylella fastidiosa on olive trees from Apulia (southern Italy). For DTBIA, fresh cross sections of young twigs and leaf petioles were printed on nitrocellulose membranes and analyzed in the laboratory. The analysis on a first group of 61 samples showed an identical ca...
Attract and kill (AK) technology was evaluated against the Mediterranean fruit fly (Med-fly), Ceratitis capitata W.. Treatment was carried out in two peach orchards of four hectares each; first one located in Borj-Touil and the second in El-Kssibi Mornag, Northern Tunisia during the 2012 field season. AK is a specialized system based on hydrolyzed...
A direct tissue blot immunoassay (DTBIA) technique has been compared with ELISA and PCR for detection of Xylella fastidiosa in olive trees from Apulia (southern Italy). Fresh cross-sections of young twigs and leaf petioles were printed onto nitrocellulose membranes and analyzed in the laboratory. Analyses of a first group of 61 samples gave similar...
The citrus growing area in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is limited to the confluence of the river Neretva, which is close to the Adriatic coastal region. Approximately 6 ha are grown in the country. Mandarins (Citrus reticulata Blanco) and lemons (Citrus limon L.) grafted on trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) are the most cultivated...
Pome fruits represent a very important fruit crops in Kosovo, covering around 50% of the total fruit production. Economic losses induced by Erwinia amylovora were reported in neighbouring countries. In order to understand the real situation of the bacterial diseases on pome fruits in the Kosovo, assessment was carried out for detecting 3 bacteria (...
The phytosanitary status of pome fruit trees was examined in Tunisia, in surveys conducted in spring 2009 and 2010, in the main Tunisian mother blocks. A total of 248 samples were collected (111 from apple, 106 from pear and 31 from quince), and tested for the presence of Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV) and Apple mosaic virus (ApMV) using E...
Stubborn disease of citrus is one of the main causes of quality deterioration of citrus fruits in Egypt. The early detection and the molecular characterization of the causal agent are vital for revealing its real distribution and for management. In 2011, several samples were collected at different times of the year from stubborn suspected symptomat...
Pome fruits represent very important fruit crops in Kosovo, covering around 50% of the total fruit production. In order to understand the phytosanitary status of pome fruits crops in the Kosovo assessment was carried out for detecting 4 viruses (ACLSV, ASGV, ApMV, ASPV), 3 viroids (ADFVd, ASSVd, PBCVd) and 3 bacteria (Erwinia amylovora, Pseudomonas...
A brief account is given on the present situation of tristeza disease in the Mediterranean countries. The recent developments in terms of presence, distribution, epidemiology and control measures are critically reviewed and analyzed. Emphasis is laid on the necessity to intensify and extend the local monitoring activity and the use of citrus certif...
Following the first report of Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) in the Syrian citrus growing areas, a new survey was carried out in spring 2009. This investigation was aimed at assessing the CTV dissemination in selected infected citrus groves, which had previously been monitored in Tartous province 3 years ago. A total of 108 samples were collected and...
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) has been considered a heavily destructive pathogen to the world’s citrus industries. In the Mediterranean basin, despite the eradication programmes that have been undertaken in many countries, CTV is still a serious threat due to its wide dissemination and the predominant use of the susceptible sour orange as rootstock....
Citrus tristeza, caused by CTV, is the most destructive virus disease of Citrus spp. and its monitoring on a large scale is of great importance for the rapid application of control measures. To this aim a study on proximal and remote sensing was conducted for the identification of CTV-infected trees. The research was carried out in 2 infected comme...
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) is the causal agent of the most important virus disease of citrus. CTV isolates differing in biological and molecular characteristics have been reported worldwide. Recently, CTV was detected in Syria in citrus groves from two Governorates (Lattakia and Tartous) and several CTV outbreaks have been reported in Apulia (sout...
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) causes one of the most disastrous citrus diseases worldwide. In Italy, tristeza outbreaks were reported from Sicily (Catania and Siracusa provinces) and Apulia (Taranto province), where two divergent RNA genomic variants (seedling yellows and mild Isolates), have been found. However, information on the mechanisms involve...
Hop stunt viroid (HSVd), genus Hostuviroid, family Pospiviroidae, has the broadest host-range known for any viroid. It infects a large number of herbaceous and woody hosts, including cucumber, grapevine, citrus, plum, peach, pear, apricot, almond, pomegranate, fig, and jujube. During a survey of citrus for HSVd in Syria, a total of 120 trees were s...
Citrus infectious variegation ilarvirus (CIVV), is the causal agent of the infectious variegation disease occurring all over the world and affecting a wide range of citrus species and cultivars. Infectious variegation induce typical variegation, epinasty, waved and irregular margin in the leaves, while crinkly and puckering can appear on leaves and...
Spiroplasma citri, a phloem-limited pathogen,
causes citrus stubborn disease (CSD) and can be
transmitted from plant to plant by several species of
phloem-feeding leafhoppers. CSD is an important disorder
in certain warm and arid citrus-growing areas, and its agent
has been recorded from several Mediterranean and Middle
Eastern countries, including...
Citrus tristeza closterovirus (CTV), an insect-borne virus transmitted in nature by several aphid species in a semi-persistent manner, has historically posed a serious threat to the citrus industry worldwide. Up to date, the virus characterization and virus-vector relationship have been a key factor in understanding the disease epidemiology. The pr...
To assess the virus and viroid infections of the most important stone fruits in Albania, surveys were carried out in nurseries, mother plots and commercial orchards in the main fruit tree-growing areas. The presence of viruses and viroids was assessed by visual inspections and laboratory tests. During field surveys, more than 5,000 trees were indiv...
Citrus tristeza closterovirus (CTV), an insect-borne virus transmitted in nature by several aphid species in a semi-persistent manner, has historically posed a serious threat to the citrus industry worldwide. Up to date, the virus characterization and virus-vector relationship have been a key factor in understanding the disease epidemiology. The pr...
A survey of Citrus tristeza virus was carried out in the main Syrian citrus-growing areas of Lattakia and Tartous by Direct Tissue Print Immunobinding Assay (DTBIA) in 2006. Several citrus nurseries, budwood source fields and groves of the main citrus varieties were visually inspected and samples collected for laboratory analysis. 3.5% of the teste...
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) is the causal agent
of the most important virus disease of citrus. CTV was
detected for the first time in the Syrian citrus-growing areas
of Lattakia and Tartous by Direct Tissue Print
Immunobinding Assay (DTBIA) in 2006. About 2600
samples from commercial orchards and nurseries were
tested, showing an infection rate of...
Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) represents one of the major threats to citrus production worldwide. In the East Adriatic region, CTV symptoms are mostly
absent due to traditional citrus grafting on trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata), a CTV-tolerant rootstock. Therefore, the virus has been continuously spreading by the propagation of infected mater...
In order to improve the sanitary status of the propagating material of stone fruits, a field survey was conducted to assess the main viruses and viroids affecting stone fruits in selected growing areas and their distribution on the collected material by using serological and molecular detection methods. Serological assays were carried out to detect...
Syrian citrus growing areas (Lattakia and Tartous) were surveyed to assess the distribution of Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) and its vectors. Eight nurseries, two bud-wood source fields and 19 groves of the main citrus varieties were visually inspected and sampled for laboratory analysis. A total of 89 CTV-infected plants out of 2653 were identified...