Methods, compositions, and systems for culturing and characterizing fastidious plant microbes

Abstract

Numerous plant microbes, including the vascular-limitedspp.—causal agents of citrus greening and potato zebra chip diseases—are non-culturable. The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments, to compositions, methods and systems for culturing such organisms. For example, the present disclosure relates to methods for culturing, propagating, and characterizing fastidious vascular-colonizing microbes using a hairy root system (e.g., in vitro, in planta). The present disclosure relates, in some embodiments, to methods for cultivating a fastidious plant microbe including: contacting a plant (e.g., a tomato plant, a potato plant, a citrus plant) colonized by a fastidious plant microbe (e.g.,Liberibacter spp.) with a suspension ofunder conditions that permit induction of hairy roots colonized with the fastidious plant microbe, and propagating the colonized microbial hairy roots.