The Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology's weekly Plant Pathology 250 seminar series is presented this week by Kranthi Mandadi, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology & Microbiology, Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension Center-Weslaco, Texas A&M University System.

Seminar Title: "Novel approaches to screening antimicrobials against fastidious pathogens"

Biography: Fastidious (unculturable) insect-vectored pathogens such as the Candidatus Liberibacter spp. associated with citrus greening pose immense  threats to agriculture and causes billions of dollars of economic losses. Unfortunately, studies of such pathogens are hindered due to their recalcitrance to  standard laboratory culturing techniques and a lack of high-throughput antimicrobial evaluation tools. We developed a versatile plant hairy root-based  therapeutic pre-screening system that allows high-throughput and faster screening of a variety of chemical, genetic and CRISPR-based strategies to control  fastidious pathogens. The efforts resulted in the identification of multiple antimicrobial peptides, immune genes, CRISPR targets, as well as new chemistries that are effective in killing Candidatus Liberibacter spp. (Nature Communications, 2020, 11, 5802). One or more of these strategies could be further  developed into products to control Candidatus Liberibacter spp.

Faculty Host: Caroline Roper; caroline.roper@ucr.edu