Poster
Neha Potnis
Associate Professor
Auburn University - Auburn University, AL
Auburn University, Alabama, United States
Amanpreet Kaur
PhD Candidate
Auburn University
Auburn University, Alabama, United States
Rishi Bhandari
Auburn University - Auburn University, AL
Auburn, Alabama, United States
Ivory Russell
Auburn University - Auburn University, AL
Auburn, Alabama, United States
Samuel Soubeyrand
INRAE
Avignon, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France
Roberto Molinari
Auburn University - Auburn University, AL
Auburn, Alabama, United States
Ogonnaya Romanus
Auburn University - Auburn University, AL
Auburn, Alabama, United States
The continuous resurgence of plant disease epidemics poses serious threats to the agricultural food production system because of ongoing climatic shifts. Modern agronomic practices and the limited effectiveness of current disease management strategies further contribute to disease outbreaks. However, the underlying drivers and risk factors associated with recurrent diseases, as well as the role of climatic variations in shaping these dynamics, remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a three-year study performing a high-resolution metagenomics on tomato field samples infected with Xanthomonas to link within-field pathogen genetic polymorphism to climatic data. Our findings revealed the co-occurrence of multiple pathogen genotypes with varying abundances, reflecting the global diversity of Xanthomonas across agricultural fields in the southeastern U.S. These variations in pathogen dynamics were explained by climate-dependent fitness strategies. Despite differences in pathogen abundance and structure, we observed consistent seasonal oscillations of pathogen variants and positively selected loci across all fields. Ultimately, our study provides valuable insights into the factors driving within-host pathogen adaptations under climate change.