IACPH 2024 - Oral Paper - Valeria Trivellone

Oral scientific presentation on "NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BIOREPOSITORIES TO ASSESS THE RISK OF (RE)-EMERGING PHYTOPLASMA" delivered by Valeria Trivellone of the Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA, during the 17th International Auchenorrhyncha Congress and 13th International Workshop on Leafhoppers and Planthoppers of Economic Importance held on 1 - 5 April 2024 on SEARCA, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.

Abstract:

Phytoplasma diseases affect more than 700 plant species worldwide including major staples, horticultural crops and ornamentals, causing billions of dollars in annual losses, with severe impacts on food security and rural economies. Although phytoplasmas and their hosts occur in most terrestrial biomes and have evolved together over the past 300+Ma, major gaps in knowledge of their associations remain because most prior research focused on management of phytoplasma diseases in agroecosystems. Use of a proactive protocol (DAMA – Document, Assess, Monitor, Act) to anticipate the emergence of phytoplasma diseases requires improved knowledge of phytoplasma biodiversity and archival vouchers of plant and insect hosts. We recently demonstrated that qPCR screening of potential auchenorrhynchan specimens preserved in biorepositories is an efficient method for documenting phytoplasma diversity and ecological associations. Our project will screen a large archive of ethanol-preserved Auchenorrhyncha representing all major lineages and biogeographic regions, previously obtained through bioinventory projects. Here we present two case studies to show how such data are useful for (1) discovering unknown phytoplasma strains and previously undocumented Auchenorrhyncha hosts and (2) performing phylogenetic triage to assess the risk of emerging phytoplasma diseases at the regional level.