Etiology and control of crop diseases

Research on crop diseases caused by soil pathogens, with emphasis on: a) biotechnology and molecular basis of plant-microorganism interactions, both pathogenic and beneficial, using ‘omic’ approaches b) genetic and pathogenic diversity of pathogen populations and their molecular detection in plant and soil, c) pre-symptomatic and non-destructive detection of vascular diseases by means of temperature, fluorescence and reflectance measurements; and d) integrated control of Mediterranean crop diseases, mainly olive verticillium, fusarium diseases of carnation and horticultural crops, downy mildew and sunflower blight, avocado root rot and late wilt of corn, including biocontrol agents, organic amendments and genetic resistance.