Interim Progress Report for CDFA Agreement Number 12-0116-SA Title of Project Blocking Xylella fastidiosa transmission Principal Investigator

The goal of this project is to develop a technology to block the vector transmission of Xylella fastidiosa to plants. The approach focuses on the disruption of X. fastidiosa-vector interactions, so that the transmission of X. fastidiosa from one plant to another is affected. Our work has demonstrated that this approach is feasible and that we can disrupt sharpshooter transmission of X. fastidiosa to grapevines using generic molecules to block bacterial access to insect receptors (Killiny et al. 2012). The specific goal of this proposal is to identify and test X. fastidiosa candidate proteins that can be used as specific transmission-blocking molecules, so that this strategy can be tested under field conditions in the near future. This report describes results achieved since April 2013. In the previous report we summarized our efforts to search for proteins implicated in the transmission of X. fastidiosa, including work conducted on the identification of chitin-binding proteins and the characterization of a chitinase mutant. We also showed that one of these proteins has a peptide that completely abolished X. fastidiosa transmission by sharpshooters in greenhouse experiments. In this interim report we focus on novel results obtained in the last three months.