Complementary researches and biotechnological and innovative approaches towards environmentally-friendly control of bacteria diseases of plants

This thesis aims to respond to the urgent need for innovation in plant protection, by studying several potential bacterial targets against which innovative and eco-friendly molecules could be then developed. To this aim, new virulence determinant of Gram-negative phytopathogenic bacteria never studied before will be investigated, the Multi Drugs and Toxic Compounds Extrusion (MATE) pumps and its role in IAA homeostsis in Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. nerii. Moreover, the same approach will expand our research also to Gram-positive bacteria, which have been definitely less investigated until now. Phenotypic and genomic analyses were conducted on a pool of curtobacterium flaccumfaciens strains. The results have provided interesting informations about epidemiological development of curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens, and have detected hypotetical virulence determinats of this pathogen.