Over the next 50 years, an aggressive plant pathogen is projected to cost Italy billions of dollars. In southern Italy, Xylella fastidiosa was found in a petri dish in the laboratory. The European Union has declared the disease a "quarantine", meaning that it must be cut down to stop it from spreading.
Valeria Scala, a plant pathologist at Italy's Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, said that people in Apulia don't want to destroy plants that are positive for Xylella. She says she has to live between two worlds as a scientist. They are trying to find ways to fight Xylella without killing trees. They are learning which trees tend to get sicker than others and how to treat them instead of chopping them down. The work is described in a book.
Both Xylella and the trees manufacture their own lipids in response to infections. The researchers collected twig samples from 66 trees and compared them with other trees to see if they had been treated with Dentamet, a metallic mixture that relieves Xylella symptoms but is not a cure.
The team found a particular type of cholesterol in plants. A native olive variety native to hard-hit Apulia had higher levels of this lipid than a widespread variety. Dentamet kept people's cholesterol levels low.
The two tree varieties behaved like people with weak immune systems fighting off the flu according to the study co-author. He thinks it's personal in some ways. The researchers might be able to diagnose the severity of the infections by measuring the lipids in the bloodstream. Dentamet could be used to manage less severe infections. Knowing how trees respond to Xylella will help in the search for additional treatments.
The University of Salento chemist, who was not involved in the new study, said it was a promising methodology that could give some relief to the economic situation in the southern part of Apulia. He says that they have to survive withbacteria
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