A New Resource for Research and Risk Analysis: The Updated European Food Safety Authority Database of Xylella spp. Host Plant Species.

Following a series of requests for scientific advice from the European Commission starting in 2013, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conducted a pest risk assessment and created a comprehensive Xylella fastidiosa host plant database. The last update of the database, published in September 2018, includes information on host plants of both X. fastidiosa and X. taiwanensis, together with details on botanical classification, infection conditions, geographic location, pathogen taxonomy including information on subspecies, strain and sequence type, detection techniques, and tolerant/resistant response of the plant. This updated database of host plants of Xylella spp. reported worldwide provides a key tool for risk management, risk assessment, and research on this generalist bacterial plant pathogen

Update of the Xylella spp. host plant database

Following a request from the European Commission, EFSA periodically updates the database on the host plants of Xylella spp. While previous editions of the database (2015 and 2016) dealt with the species Xylella fastidiosa only, this database version addresses the whole genus Xylella, including therefore both species X.fastidiosa and Xylella taiwanensis. The database now includes information on host plants of Xylella spp. retrieved from scientific literature up to November 2017 and from EUROPHYT notifications up to May 2018. An extensive literature search was performed to screen the scientific and technical literature published between the previous database update conducted in December 2015 and December 2017. The literature screening was supported by the DistillerSR software platform. The applied protocol for the extensive literature review and extensive information search, together with examples of data extraction, are described in detail in this report. This report also includes published information on resistance or tolerance of plant varieties to Xylella spp. The current database includes 563 plant species reported to be infected by X.fastidiosa, of which for 312 plant species the infection has been determined with at least two different detection methods. These species cover hundreds of host plant genera in 82 botanical families (61 botanical families when considering only records with at least two different detection methods). The update of this database of host plants of Xylella spp. reported world-wide provides a key tool for risk management, risk assessment and research on this polyphagous bacterial plant pathogen