01/18/05 Fireblight and streptomyecin, Part two

The anti-biotic streptomyecin is one of the more used methods to control the enemy of apple and pear growers known as fireblight. But there are concerns by some within the health care community that as fruit continues to be applied with streptomyecin, it could develop a resistance in bacteria which in turn could be spread to human pathogens. So what to do to continue fireblight control while assuring that human health will not be compromised? That is the focus of some research institutions across the nation, such as U.S.D.A.'s West Virginia Horticultural Research Facility. One way to go about it, according to U.S.D.A. Plant Pathologist Charles Wilson is developing improved natural materials to battle fireblight. WILSON: We have been developing sort of a stable of natural compounds that are anti-microbial. One of these is kyto-san which is interesting enough an extract from shellfish. The other compound is a cedar exact and that seems to work very well. But fellow plant pathologist John Norelli says maybe the best way to counter fireblight and look into streptomyecin, is studying the apple genome, with the hope of using that information to totally eradicate the disease. NORELLI: It's going to lead to identifying specific genes that might be key to the plant being able to resist the disease. We then can incorporate those genes into our breeding programs to develop better apples.