BEYOND THE GROVE: UNVEILING THE ECOLOGY AND DIVERSITY OF X-DISEASE, ‘CANDIDATUS PHYTOPLASMA PRUNI’, STRAINS IN EXTRA-ORCHARD ENVIRONMENTS
Plant Disease
Wild chokecherries lining the trails and roadsides near you may be hosting a pathogen that's quietly reshaping which cherries you'll find at local farms and u-pick orchards in coming years.
X-disease is a bacterial infection spread by insects that attacks cherry trees and has been causing major crop losses. Researchers tested hundreds of wild chokecherry shrubs (a relative of cultivated cherries) and found the disease almost everywhere across the western U.S. What's surprising is that the disease strains found in farm orchards didn't seem to come from the wild chokecherries nearby — they may be spreading through different, still-unknown routes. The Rocky Mountains also appear to act as a natural barrier, with more variety in the pathogen found on the western slopes.
Key Findings
X-disease phytoplasma was found in wild chokecherries across nearly all 13 sampled western and midwestern U.S. states (518 plants tested), making infection essentially universal in wild host populations.
Genetic analysis showed clear geographic separation among strains in wild plants, but not in commercial orchards — suggesting orchard infections are not simply spilling over from adjacent wild chokecherries.
The Rocky Mountains appear to act as a barrier to pathogen movement, with greater strain diversity found on the western side, and 29 new pathogen genomes were added that suggest some classified strains may represent entirely separate species.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A bacterial pathogen called X-disease is devastating cherry orchards across North America, and this study found it is nearly everywhere in wild chokecherry shrubs across the western U.S. — but surprisingly, the strains infecting orchards don't appear to come directly from nearby wild plants, suggesting the disease is spreading through other pathways.
Abstract Preview
Commercial cherry growers throughout North America have experienced significant crop losses over the last decade due to an outbreak of X-disease, caused by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma pruni’ (Harper et...
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