The overall objective is to devise means to detect and combat plant diseases that are caused by phytoplasmas, spiroplasmas, and various walled bacteria.

Specifically we wish to:
• Characterize genomes of the wall-less prokaryotes
• Develop and evaluate new means for detection and identification of the pathogens.
• Determine genetic relatedness of phytoplasmas for classification.
• Identify factors in disease symptom development.
• Determine molecular markers of pathogenicity genes.
• Identify pathogen-antagonistic genes for disease control.