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Transmissible tolerance to European stone fruit yellows (ESFY) in apricot: cross-protection or a plant mediated process?

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Abstract

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 transmissible by grafting to successive apricot individuals, but it is not clear whether recovery corresponds to a transmissible tolerance that depends on a plant–mediated reaction or if it is due to a cross-protection promoted by a transmissible protective agent i.e. hypovirulent strain/s of ‘Ca. P. prunorum’. Results achieved after prolonged field experiments support the first hypothesis. Two groups of apricot plants derived from a common recovered mother (one ‘Ca. P. prunorum’-free after heat-treatment and the second not heat-treated, i.e. harbouring potential protective strain/s of the phytoplasma), behaved similarly: no plants from either of the two groups developed stable ESFY symptoms after natural infections. Corresponding groups of plants, derived from symptomatic mothers, developed a high percentage of diseased plants after natural infection. No potential protective ‘Ca. P. prunorum’ hypovirulent strains were detected in the asymptomatic apricot plants. The summarized evidence supports a host-defence induction, likely of epigenetic feature. The present long-term study in apricot represents an uncommon empiric proof supporting the theory of inducible resistance to pathogens in plants.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to Prof. A. H. Purcell, University of California, USA, who kindly gave helpful suggestions and to Prof. Benny Raccah, Agricultural Research Organization ARO, Bet Dagan, Israel, for his critical reading of the manuscript. Authors thank Dr. L. Cantrill (Out of site English, Sydney, Australia) for the revision of the English text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Udine, via delle Scienze, 206, I-33100, Udine, Italy

    Ruggero Osler, Stefano Borselli, Paolo Ermacora, Francesca Ferrini, Alberto Loschi, Marta Martini, Serena Moruzzi, Rita Musetti & Nazia Loi

  2. Veneto Agricoltura, Centro Sperimentale Frutticolo Pradon, I-45018, Porto Tolle, Italy

    Michele Giannini & Simone Serra

Authors
  1. Ruggero Osler
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  2. Stefano Borselli
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  3. Paolo Ermacora
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  4. Francesca Ferrini
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  5. Alberto Loschi
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  6. Marta Martini
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  7. Serena Moruzzi
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  8. Rita Musetti
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  9. Michele Giannini
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  10. Simone Serra
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  11. Nazia Loi
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Correspondence to Rita Musetti.

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Osler, R., Borselli, S., Ermacora, P. et al. Transmissible tolerance to European stone fruit yellows (ESFY) in apricot: cross-protection or a plant mediated process?. Phytoparasitica 44, 203–211 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-016-0509-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-016-0509-2

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