With 160+ countries and islands, the tropical belt is the geographical region centered on the equator and limited by the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Tropical agricultural production is mostly for local consumption but cash crops are also present. Tropical agriculture is characterized by a significant lack of capital in research and agricultural systems and by a high prevalence of insect pests and diseases. Phytoplasma diseases are associated by bacteria-like pathogens living in plant sap and spread by sap-feeding insects. They are emerging diseases and are difficult to control, mostly because their epidemiology is not known. This book will focus on detection and prevention of phytoplasma diseases in field and horticultural crops grown in the tropical belt. The book will review current prevention methods used in small and large-scale farms, and present research results aiming at developing sustainable management of phytoplasma diseases in the tropics.

Autorentext

Chrystel Olivier is a Research Scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Saskatoon Research and Development Centre (AAFC) since 2001. Her research interests includes phytoplasma disease epidemiology and management in field crops. Her lab worked extensively on aster yellow disease epidemiology and control in canola and cereal crops and on leafhopper population associated with the disease.

Tim J. Dumonceaux has been a Research Scientist at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Saskatoon Research and Development Centre (AAFC) since 2009. His research interests include molecular diagnostics of plant and animal pathogens, the impacts of microbial communities on a variety of agricultural ecosystems, and the applications of white-rot fungi in the production of biofuels. His lab has developed a suite of tools for identifying and characterizing phytoplasmas based on the universal microbial barcode chaperonin-60 (cpn60), and he maintains an interest in applying these tools to the detection, characterization, and quantification of phytoplasma infections in plant and insect tissues.

Edel Pérez-López is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, Biology Department, working with clubroot and the soil-borne obligate parasite Plasmodiophora brassicae, although he keeps actively collaborating in research projects related to the identification and characterization of phytoplasmas in South America, Saudi Arabia and Canada. Edel has been working with phytoplasmas affecting crops in Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Canada, and Saudi Arabia since 2012, working also on the development of diagnostic methods to identify and characterize this group of plant pathogenic bacteria.

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