Local researchers create vaccine for fruit trees
Agronomist Franco Novoa, biologist Julio Becerra and veterinarian Rolando Calvanese, are developing an innovative organic vaccine that aims to make more resistant to blueberry and cherry plants to two diseases that cause serious economic damage to orchards.
The project was co-financed by the Foundation for Agrarian Innovation (FIA) through the contest "Innovation projects for adaptation to climate change 2016". Its execution with a term of three years, began in June, with a total investment of $ 201 million, of which FIA contributed the 70%.
According to the researchers explained, the objective is to develop two marketable biotechnological products for the control of botrytis in blueberries and bacterial cancer in cherry trees - two of the crops with the greatest expansion in Ñuble -, which will materialize in obtaining two vaccines at the level of prototype.
Becerra explained that climate change, with the change in the frequency and magnitude of some environmental variables such as temperature and humidity, have presented conditions that allow an increase in the development and infection of Pseudomonas syringae (bacterial cancer) in cherry trees, while in the blueberry orchards the increase of temperature and humidity in the flowering stage generate favorable conditions for the development and infection of Botrytis cinerea.
Novoa warned that the above has led to an increase in the use of pesticides, causing greater environmental damage, with risk to the health of those who apply the products and for consumers in general, and an increase in production costs.
Becerra stressed that "the level of infection that we find in different types of orchards is great. In fact, Botrytis is one of the main diseases that affect cranberry in Chile, with losses between 30% and 40%, which is controlled relatively well, but with a large battery of phytosanitary products. "
Meanwhile, bacterial cancer is the main disease of the cherry tree, "and in Chile it is extremely virulent, with losses of up to 60%, and we can say that there is no orchard in Chile that does not have it," Novoa continued.
But the most important thing, according to Becerra, "is that through the application of pesticides and the environmental changes we have, today it is being detected that there are strains that are multi-resistant, as is happening with humans."
The vaccine
"We believe that the plants will generate specific defense mechanisms, that's why we talk about vaccines," said Novoa, who said "I do not know if we are going to replace chemical pesticides, but there will be a decrease."
The researcher stated that "we are looking to isolate the specific proteins and enzymes that have both the fungus and the bacteria we are studying, and we are going to add them to the plants so that they have a specific response to these two microorganisms", specifying that a alternative application could be through irrigation.
The agronomist maintained that "this is a tool that comes to be a complement rather than an exclusive management, it is like vaccines in humans, which does not ensure that you will not have the disease, but that the disease will be much more controlled. And secondly, like humans, if you do not have a good preventive system, you do not eat well, the effect is diminished. "
"Our expectation is that this is an alternative to the management of these diseases, and not thinking that this will kill the bugs, because it is not, but what will do is that the plant will be less attractive to the pathogenic microorganism, "added Novoa.
According to Becerra, "this poses a change in how agriculture has been treated, because agriculture is combat, killing kill, however, we are trying to establish a turning point, a new paradigm, which has to do with friend of the plants through their natural cycles, which is very little studied ".
Source: ladiscusion.cl
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