Paolo Ermacora

• Researcher at University of Udine

Xylophilus ampelinus is a xylematic bacterium causing bacterial blight of grapevine, a disease regarded as a potential threat for viticulture in several countries. Currently, PCR detection is pivotal in diagnostic protocols due to the bacterium's infrequent occurrence in the field and the technical advantages of PCR. Recent metagenomic studies have...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are responsible for the antagonistic activity exerted by different biological control agents (BCAs). In this study, VOCs produced by Pseudomonas synxantha strain 117-2b were tested against two kiwifruit fungal postharvest pathogens: Cadophora luteo-olivacea and Botrytis cinerea, through in vitro and in vivo assays....

Cadophora luteo‐olivacea is the causal agent of the skin‐pitting disease of kiwifruit, a syndrome that appears after 4–5 months of cold storage. However, it is assumed that the infection takes place in the field during fruit development. The present work takes into consideration the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of Actinidia delic...

This study aimed to determine whether leaf extracts from seven Eruca vesicaria subsp. sativa cultivars and their biochemically active compounds (glucosinolates and downstream-derived products) inhibit mycelia growth of three well-known pathogenic oomycetes, Phytopythium chamaehyphon, Phytopythium vexans and Phytophthora citrophthora; being the most...

The emergence of novel viral epidemics that could affect major crops represents a serious threat to global food security. The early and accurate identification of the causative viral agent is the most important step for a rapid and effective response to disease outbreaks. Over the last years, the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) MinION sequencer...

Kiwifruit Vine Decline Syndrome (KVDS) is an important soil-borne disease for the Italian kiwifruit industry, causing €300,000 in economic losses in 2020 alone. So far, the organisms recognized as involved in the aetiology of KVDS mainly belong to the Oomycota. As no effective management strategies exist, a promising approach to overcoming KVDS is...

Environmental changes and global warming may promote the emergence of unknown viruses, whose spread is favored by the trade in plant products. Viruses represent a major threat to viticulture and the wine industry. Their management is challenging and mostly relies on prophylactic measures that are intended to prevent the introduction of viruses into...

Since its discovery in 2012, the role of the trichovirus named Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) as the causative agent of Grapevine Leaf Mottling and Deformation (GMLD) syndrome, a grapevine disease which’ symptoms had been observed in North Italy and Western Slovenia a few years earlier, has been a matter of discussion. In the following ten years...

Since 2012 Kiwifruit Vine Decline Syndrome (KVDS) has severely compromised all major kiwifruit growing areas in Italy. So far, aetiological studies were mainly focused on waterlogging effects or on the isolation of microorganisms from diseased plants, thus an all-encompassing picture on KVDS microbiota is still missing. This work aims to describe o...

Kiwifruit Vine Decline Syndrome (KVDS) is currently affecting Italian kiwifruit cultivation, causing dramatic yield and economic losses. The syndrome’s aetiology is due to soil-borne pathogens and waterlogging, leading to the decay of roots and then the canopy. Current knowledge about the disease is limited, and the techniques to control the syndro...

Kiwifruit is sold in different ways, based on pulp colour, packaging and cultivation process. On these basis, the purpose of this research is to examine the motivations in predicting purchase intentions of kiwifruits to improve its market. A field study was developed, involving about 900 consumers in Italy, North-East. Questionnaire data were creat...

‘Lamon bean’ is a protected geographical indication (PGI) for a product of four varieties of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) grown in a specific area of production, which is located in the Belluno district, Veneto region (N.E. of Italy). In the last decade, the ‘Lamon bean’ has been threatened by severe virus epidemics that have compromised its profit...

Kiwifruit vine decline syndrome (KVDS) is a severe and complex disease, that has been afflicting Italian kiwifruit cultivation for nearly 10 years, causing dramatic yield losses, as well as plant death and replant problems. KVDS aetiology has been attributed to the presence of soil borne pathogens, enhanced by waterlogging conditions. Symptoms affe...

Kiwifruit Vine Decline Syndrome (KVDS) is a severe and complex disease, that has been afflicting Italian kiwifruit cultivation for nearly 10 years, causing dramatic yield losses, as well as plant death and replant problems. KVDS aetiology has been attributed to the presence of soil borne pathogens, enhanced by waterlogging conditions. Symptoms affe...

The lowest values of all parameters related to root growth were obtained for the "Hayward" variety, while the two A. macrosperma showed significant differences in the root volume. "Bounty71" was not significantly different from A. macrosperma 183 since the root volume was only slightly higher than that of A. macrosperma 183. A. arguta "Miss Green"...

Grapevine leaf mottling and deformation is a novel grapevine disease that has been associated with grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV). The virus was observed exclusively inside membrane-bound structures in the bundle sheath cells of the infected grapevines. As reported widely in the literature, many positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses modify...

Understanding how phytoplasmas move and multiply within the host plant is fundamental for plant–pathogen interaction studies. In recent years, the tomato has been used as a model plant to study this type of interaction. In the present work, we investigated the distribution and multiplication dynamics of one strain of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma (Ca. P....

Valutare alcune accessioni di Actinidia per possibili tratti di resistenza/tolleranza alla Moria Definirne la performance agronomica delle accessioni in studio tramite fenotipizzazione e valutazione di alcuni parametri vegetativi Valutazione dei fattori più importanti per definire la qualità delle accessioni, tramite un approccio «multivariato»

Grapevine Leaf Mottling and Deformation (GLMD) is a grapevine disease that has been associated with a trichovirus, the grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV). A wide diversity in the severity of GLMD disease symptoms has been recorded worldwide, but the relationship of this diversity to the sequence variation in the GPGV genome is still a matter of deba...

Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) is an emerging trichovirus that has been putatively associated with a novel grapevine disease known as grapevine leaf mottling and deformation (GLMD). Yet the role of GPGV in GLMD disease is poorly understood, since it has been detected both in symptomatic and symptomless grapevines. We exploited a recently constru...

Kiwifruit Vine Decline Syndrome (KVDS) is a serious soil-borne disease that degrades the fine roots of both Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa and var. chinensis. The disease seems to be the result of an interaction between several soil-borne pathogens, mostly oomycetes, and waterlogging. This work investigates the pathogenicity of the oomycete Phy...

There is a wide diversity in the severity of symptoms of Grapevine Leaf Mottling and Deformation disease (GLMD-d), but how such a diversity could be related with the sequence variation of the associated Trichovirus, the Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV), is still a matter of debate. The sequence of the 3'-end region of the GPGV movement protein (MP...

AimsIn 2012, Italian kiwifruit orchards were hit by a serious root disease of unknown aetiology (kiwifruit decline, KD) that still causes extensive damage to the sector. While waterlogging was soon observed to be associated with its outbreak, the putative role of soil microbiota remains unknown. This work investigates the role of these two factors...

Eight years after the first record in Italy, Kiwifruit Decline (KD), a destructive disease causing root rot, has already affected more than 25% of the area under kiwifruit cultivation in Italy. Diseased plants are characterised by severe decay of the fine roots and sudden wilting of the canopy, which is only visible after the season’s first period...

Despite the increasing spread of Grapevine Leaf Mottling and Deformation (GLMD) worldwide, little is known about its etiology. After identification of grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) as the presumptive causal agent of the disease in 2015, various publications have evaluated GPGV involvement in GLMD. Nevertheless, there are only partial clues to e...

Friuli Venezia Giulia is a rich reservoir of walnut (Juglans regia L.) germplasm, representing a corridor that links the Balkans to the Italian peninsula, the two germplasm sources that met during re-colonization after the last glaciation. The analysis of genetic diversity of 215 wild accessions collected in the region and genotyped with 20 microsa...

This work reports the comparison of the genome sequence and the ability to inhibit fungal growth of two Pseudomonas protegens related strains that were isolated from the same hydroponic culture of lamb's lettuce. The two strains were very similar in their core genome but one strain, Pf4, contained three gene clusters for the production of secondary...

The Grapevine Pinot Gris disease (GPG-d) is a novel disease characterized by symptoms such as leaf mottling and deformation, which has been recently reported in grapevines, and mostly in Pinot gris. Plants show obvious symptoms at the beginning of the growing season, while during summer symptom recovery frequently occurs, manifesting as symptomless...

S1 Table shows the list of primers used for reference gene identification. (DOCX)

Grapevine Pinot gris disease (GPGD) has been associated with a trichovirus, namely grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV), although the virus has been reported in both symptomatic and asymptomatic plants. Despite the puzzling aetiology of the disease and potentially important role of GPGV, the number of fully sequenced isolates is still rather limited....

Phytoplasmas are associated with diseases in several hundreds of cultivated herbaceous and woody plants. Their impact in agriculture and the periodical outbreak of worrying epidemics make very important, besides precise laboratory-based diagnosis, the direct in-field recognition of phytoplasma disease symptoms. Even if some symptoms are typical of...

Boron (B) deficiency is widespread in viticultural areas especially in sandy and alkaline soils that are poor in organic matter. Two types of B deficiency have been identified in vineyards: the “early spring temporary deficiency” and the “late summer deficiency”. Symptoms reported include leaves that are distorted, cupped, chlorotic, with prominent...

Despite the increasing impact of Grapevine Pinot gris disease (GPG-disease) worldwide, etiology about this disorder is still uncertain. The presence of the putative causal agent, the Grapevine Pinot Gris Virus (GPGV), has been reported in symptomatic grapevines (presenting stunting, chlorotic mottling, and leaf deformation) as well as in symptom-fr...

Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) biovar 3 caused pandemic bacterial canker of Actinidia chinensis and Actinidia deliciosa since 2008. In Europe, the disease spread rapidly in the kiwifruit cultivation areas from a single introduction. In this study, we investigated the genomic diversity of Psa biovar 3 strains during the primary clonal exp...

A new Trichovirus, named Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) was discovered in 2012 by NGS approach in Pinot gris grapevine with symptoms of chlorotic mottling and leaf deformation. Despite reports are increasing worldwide, the aetiology of GPG disease remains still unclear since the virus was detected both in symptomatic and asymptomatic plants. The...

In an attempt to select potential biocontrol agents against Pythium spp. and Rhizoctonia spp. root pathogens for use in soilless systems, 12 promising bacteria were selected for further investigations. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that three strains belonged to the genus Enterobacter, whereas nine strains belonged to the genus Ps...

In 2003 an emergent disease characterized by symptoms of stunting, chlorotic mottling and leaf deformation has been reported in several grapevine varieties in different regions of Northern Italy. A new Trichovirus, named Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV), was discovered in 2012 by NGS approach. Despite reports have been increasing worldwide, the ae...

Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) is a newly discovered virus included in the genus Trichovirus in the family Betaflexiviridae. The virus has been detected on grapevine plants of different cultivars, showing symptoms of stunting, chlorotic mottling, mosaic and de- formation of leaves, but also on asymptomatic plants. Despite the increase of reports...

European Stone Fruit Yellows (ESFY) is an emerging disease caused by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum’ (‘Ca. P. prunorum’) affecting stone fruits, as apricots. Resistant apricot cultivars are unknown, but it has been demonstrated that individual plants can recover from the disease, behaving as completely tolerant to ESFY. The status of tolerance is...

Fluorescent pseudomonads colonizing roots of crop plants and producing antifungal metabolites are regarded as a reliable alternative to chemical fungicides against soil-borne phytopathogens. Key factors in successful pathogen control are presence and activity at the appropriate concentration, time, and place of biocontrol agents. Thus, quantificati...

European stone fruit yellows (ESFY) is one of the most destructive phytoplasma diseases of plum, apricot, and peach in Europe. Conventional preventive defense strategies have been ineffective. Because apricot cultivars with innate-constitutive resistance against ESFY are not available, the aim of this more than 20-year-long study was to seek acquir...

In this paper, lipase activity was characterized in coffee (Coffea arabica L.) seeds to determine its involvement in lipid degradation during germination. The lipase activity, evaluated by a colorimetric method, was already present before imbibition ofseeds and was further induced during the germination process. The activity showed a biphasic behav...

Apple trees (Malus domestica Borkh.) may be affected by apple proliferation (AP), caused by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’. Some plants can spontaneously recover from the disease, which implies the disappearance of symptoms through a phenomenon known as recovery. In this article it is shown that NAD(P)H peroxidases of leaf plasma membrane-enriched f...

To improve knowledge about plant/phytoplasma interactions and, in particular, about the ‘recovery’ phenomenon in previously-infected plants, we investigated and compared expression levels of several defence-related genes (four pathogenesis-related proteins and three jasmonate-pathway marker enzymes) in apple plants showing different states of healt...

By applying a coverage based read selection and filtration through a healthy plant dataset, and a post-assembly contig selection based on homology and linkage, genome sequence drafts were obtained for four phytoplasma strains belonging to the 16SrIII group (X disease clade), namely the Vaccinium Witches' Broom phytoplasma (647,754 nts in 272 contig...

Plants of Convolvulus arvensis var. linearifolius exhibiting symptoms of undersized leaves, shoot proliferation, and yellowing, collectively defined as bindweed yellows (BY) were sampled in different regions in Europe and assessed for phytoplasma infection by PCR amplification using phytoplasma universal rRNA operon primer pairs. Positive results w...

A two year surveys was conducted in Friuli Venezia Giulia region (north-eastern Italy) with the aims to improve knowledge about biological characteristics of Cacopsylla pruni Scopoli, and to ascertain its role in the spread of different 'Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum' strains. Insects were captured starting from March till the end of April in apr...

A SYBR ® Green I real-time PCR assay has been used for specific detection and quantification of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum' in different Prunus species such as P. armeniaca, P. salicina, P. persica and P. tomentosa grown in a screenhouse and infected by means of the vector. Infection level of 'Ca. P. prunorum' in plant samples, expressed as '...

The genetic diversity of three temperate fruit tree phytoplasmas 'Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum', 'Ca. P. mali' and 'Ca. P. pyri' has been established by multilocus sequence analysis. Among the four genetic loci used, the genes imp and aceF distinguished 30 and 24 genotypes, respectively, and showed the highest variability. Percentage of substitu...

Recovery of apple trees from apple proliferation was studied by combining ultrastructural, cytochemical, and gene expression analyses to possibly reveal changes linked to recovery-associated resistance. When compared with either healthy or visibly diseased plants, recovered apple trees showed abnormal callose and phloem-protein accumulation in thei...

Interaction between phytoplasma and grapevine at the physiological level is still poorly understood, as are plant defence mechanisms against the pathogen. This study investigates the level of gene expression of three selected genes in a large number of grapevine plants belonging to six disease/cultivar groups (healthy Chardonnay, Bois noir-infected...

During maturation, Vitis vinifera berries accumulate a large amount of several anthocyanins in the epidermal tissue, whereas their precursors and intermediates are ubiquitously synthesized within the fruit. Up to date, several mechanisms of flavonoid transport at subcellular level have been hypothesized, but it is not possible to identify a general...

SUMMARY A 3-year study was carried out in a geographically and ecologically isolated area of north-east Italy with a long tradition in horticulture, where a severe epidemic of stolbur phytoplasma occurred. Among cultivated vegetables, celery was the most susceptible to the dis- ease. In the farms surveyed, Convolvulus arvensis a nat- ural host of t...

Severe apple proliferation epidemic is being experienced in the most important apple growing valleys of Trentino. Towards finding the resistance/tolerance to this disease, a germoplasm screening was undertaken. Reliability of available screening tests on symptomatic and asymptomatic samples was monitored. Apple samples belonging to four cultivars,...

The recent council order on obligatory measures for the control of apple proliferation in Italy underlines the importance of vector control. For this reason the epidemiology of the disease was studied by focusing on the life cycle and the infectivity of the vector Cacopsylla picta. The proportion of both phytoplasma positive and inoculative insects...

A new PCR/RFLP method based on ribosomal protein (rp) gene sequences has been established for specific detection and differentiation of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma mali' ('Ca. P. mali'). The primer pair rpAP15f/rpAP15r has been used in direct-PCR or in nested-PCR following direct-PCR with primer pair rpAP15f2/rp(I)R1A. This new method has been tested i...

The presence and distribution of grapevine phy-toplasmas was investigated from 2003 to 2005 in some of the most important viticultural areas of Serbia, con-sidering in particular the susceptibility and sensitive-ness of both local and imported grapevine cultivars. Both flavescence dorée (FD) and bois noir (BN) phy-toplasmas were detected using mole...

During 2004-2006 research was carried out in 19 vineyards to assess the occurrence of recovery in plants affected by grapevine yellows (GYs, i.e. "flavescence dorée" and "bois noir"). Irrespective of GY type, 50% of symptomatic grapevines showed recov- ery the following year and 70% after two years. In about one third of the grapevines which had re...

Surveys were conducting in autumn 2004, 2006 and summer 2005 and 2007 in the traditional areas dedicated to grapevine cultiva- tion in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim is to monitor the presence and distribution of grapevine yellows phytoplasmas diseases and asses the presence and distribution of Scaphoideus titanus vector of 'Candidatus phytoplasma...

A study was carried out in order to examine colonization pattern of one year old apple trees infected with rpX-A and rpX-D strains of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma mali'. Plants contemporaneously or successively infected by two strains were obtained by bud grafting and approach grafting. Nested-PCR and RFLP analyses were applied in order to investigate p...

A real-time PCR assay conjugated with the fluorescent SYBR® Green I dye has been developed for rapid, sensitive and quantita- tive detection of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum' in its natural hosts, in stone fruits such as apricot plants and in the insect vector Cacopsylla pruni. The selected primers amplified specifically a fragment 153 bp long f...

Surveys were carried out in autumn 2004 and spring 2005 in the traditional areas dedicated to pome and stone fruit cultivation in Bosnia and Herzegovina to assess the presence, distribution and incidence of phytoplasma diseases in fruit trees. The occurrence of psyllid vectors was also considered. The detection of phytoplasmas in plant and insect s...

Surveys were conducting in autumn 2004, 2006 and summer 2005 and 2007 in the traditional areas dedicated to grapevine cultivation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim is to monitor the presence and distribution of grapevine yellows phytoplasmas diseases and asses the presence and distribution of Scaphoideus titanus vector of 'Candidatus phytoplasma v...

During the late summer-early autumn of 2002, surveys were carried out in Turkey to determine the presence of phytoplasma diseases in fruit trees. Phytoplasmas were detected and characterized by PCR-RFLP analysis and TEM technique in stone fruit and pear trees in the eastern Mediterranean region of the country. Six out of 24 samples, including almon...

Malus x domestica Borkh. (apple), one of the most widely grown fruit crops in the world, is susceptible to several fungal diseases, among which scab (Venturia inaequalis (Cooke) Aderh.) is one of the most economically important. Although cultivars may exhibit different degrees of susceptibility, none are immune. While much information is available...

The susceptibility and sensitiveness of 12 Prunus species to European stone fruit yellows phytoplasma were studied under controlled conditions by using vector and graft transmission methods. The capability of the different species to host the vector was also considered. The results obtained showed that: P. armeniaca, P. cerasifera, P. domestica, P....

Samples (shoots and leaves) were collected in August 2002 from symptomatic plants in two cultivated blackberry (Rubus spp.) fields and from wild blackberry (Rubus fruticosus L.) plants growing at the border of citrus orchards in Adana, Hatay and Içel provinces in Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey. Blackberry plants were observed to show sympto...

SUMMARY The presence and colonisation step of apple prolifer- ation phytoplasma in recovered, symptomatic and never symptomatic apple trees were studied. Using serological and molecular techniques, it was demonstrated that re- covered plants maintain infectivity in their roots while they lose phytoplasmas from shoots and leaves; in con- trast, appl...

Epidemiology of European stone fruit yellows was studied by focussing on the life cycle and transmission characteristics of the vector Cacopsyllapruni. The proportion of both phytoplasma positive and inoculative insects was determined for the first C. pruni adults back colonising the stone fruit trees in spring and for the new generations of the ve...

ABSTRACT Localization of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and the roles of peroxidases, malondialdehyde, and reduced glutathione in three apple cultivars were compared in healthy trees, trees infected with apple proliferation phytoplasma (APP), and trees that had recovered from the infection. In recovered apple trees, symptoms of the disease and the pa...

A 3-year study was carried out in north-east Italy, the site of recent elm yellows epidemics, to identify vectors for the elm yellows phytoplasma. Using PCR analysis, Ulmus minor and Ulmus pumila, each with and without symptoms, were positive for the elm yellows phytoplasma. Macropsis mendax, a univoltine and monophagous leafhopper, was shown to be...

Apple proliferation (AP), caused by a phytoplasma belonging to AP group, is an important vector-borne and graft-transmissible disease of apple trees in most European pome fruit-growing areas. Rapid and sensitive detection methods are required for its control. Recently developed monoclonal antibodies were evaluated for detecting AP phytoplasma by en...

Several uncultivated trees of the species Prunus spinosa, P. cerasifera and P. domestica, sampled both adjacent to European stone fruit yellows (ESFY)-infected orchards and in isolation from cultivated stone fruit plants, were found to be infected by ESFY phytoplasma. These species were also colonized by Cacopsylla pruni, vector of the ESFY agent....

An immunoelectron microscopy technique was applied to label Chrysanthemum leuchanthemum phytoplasma in infected leaf tissues of Chrysanthemum leuchanthemum L. and Catharanthus roseus L. plants. Specific monoclonal antibodies at different dilutions and secondary antimouse antibody conjugated with colloidal gold particles of different sizes were used...

Two monoclonal antibodies were obtained against the apple proliferation phytoplasma that provide easy, rapid, specific and sensitive serological detection. They reacted specifically by using ELISA and immunofluorescence techniques with apple proliferation-infected periwinkles and apple trees from different regions in northern Italy and Slovenia, bu...

Pear decline, European stone fruit yellows and apple proliferation are among the most important phytoplasma diseases of fruit trees in Europe. Their genetically related agents, all belonging to the phylogenetic group of "Apple proliferation", are transmitted by psyllids which overwinter as infectious adults. The data up to now obtained in our inves...

A study was carried out on the transmission parameters of the European stone fruit yellows phytoplasma by the vector Cacopsylla pruni. In the greenhouse, using groups of psyllids, the minimum acquisition period was 2–4 days, the minimum latent period 2–3 weeks and the minimum inoculation period 1–2 days. The vectors retained infectivity until their...