XfSTOP goes ahead with olive tree sampling to isolate endophytes

As part of the XfSTOP project, led by InnovPlantProtect's New Biopesticides Department, which aims to use biological control tools to manage the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa in olive groves, members of the team that makes up this department went on a field trip to Herdade de Reguengo, belonging to INIAV, in Elvas, on February 10th.

With the help of INIAV researchers Rocio Calderón-Arias and António Cordeiro, the InPP team collected olive tree samples of different varieties (Leccino, Cobrançosa and Arbequina), making it possible to optimize protocols for the isolation of symbiotic bacteria that live inside olive trees, the endophytes.

These endophytes, inhabitants of the same ecological niche as the Xylella, The endophyte will be used to produce our biopesticide, explains Cristina Azevedo, director of the Department. The idea is to reintroduce the endophyte into the olive tree, which represents a sustainable way of producing a growth inhibitor for Xylella.