Olive Tree Infection Can be Diagnosed Using Machine-Learning Algorithm

An aggressive plant pathogen identified as xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium that wipes out olive trees, is forecasted to cost Italy billions of euros over the next five decades.

The said microbe, named as such due to its "pickiness when grown in the laboratory," was initially detected in 2013 in Southern Italy, a Scientific American report specified.

Currently, it is designated a "quarantine organism" in the European Union. Infected trees, some centuries old, need to be cut down to prevent the spread of the disease in areas like the Apulia region of Italy.

According to plant pathologist Valeria Scala from the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics of Italy, they are obliged to destroy plants found to be positive for Xylella, although Apulia residents do not want to destroy them.

Xylella Fastidiosa Bacterium

As scientists explained to Scala, "we have to live between two worlds." Therefore, she and her colleagues have looked for ways to combat Xylella without having to kill each infected tree.

Employing a machine-learning algorithm to sift through the metabolic data of trees, the team is learning which trees are inclined to get more ill compared to others and how to choose trees that need treatment instead of chopping them out.

In this work, detailed in the Frontiers in Plant Science, Xylella makes complex fatty acids known as lipids to use as "key signaling molecules," and the trees are manufacturing their lipids in response to infection.

The study investigators collected twig samples from more than 66 trees. They used their algorithm to compare lipid profiles along with the status of infection and tree varieties, not to mention whether each tree had undergone treatment with a metallic mixture called Dentament that relieves Xylella symptoms. However, it is not considered a cure.

Machine-Learning Algorithm Used

In this research, the team discovered a specific type of lipid at greater concentrations in infected plants. A variety of olives native to hard-hit Apulia exhibited higher levels of this lipid when invected than a wide variety known for its hardiness.

For both types of trees, Dentamet kept infected the lipid levels of individuals lower. Massimo Reverberi, the study's co-author and a molecular plant pathologist at the Sapienza University of Rome, said the two tree varieties behaved slightly like people with stronger or weaker immune systems fighting off the flu.

The plant pathologist hypothesized that it is "personal" in several ways. Further developing such an algorithm could help the researchers diagnose the severity of infection lipid concentrations.

Essentially, as specified in a similar World News Era report, less serious infections could be managed with Dentamet, and just the worst circumstances would need to be culled.

Knowing how trees are responding to Xylella infection will also direct the search for further treatments and determine more resistant varieties of trees, explained Scala.

Francesco Paolo Fanizzi, a University of Salento chemist who was not part of the new research, said the work represents a promising methodology that could provide some relief to such a painful economic condition in Apulia's southern part. He added, "We have to survive together with bacteria."

Related information about olive tree diseases is shown on Nature Plus's YouTube video below:

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