Deciphering fire blight : from Erwinia amylovora ecology to genomics and sustainable control

Fire blight is a highly destructive plant disease that affects the pome fruit value chain, with high economic impacts. Its etiological agent is the Gram-negative bacterium Erwinia amylovora. The origin of fire blight goes back to the late 1700s in North America, and the disease since then has spread to New Zealand, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Due to its worldwide dissemination, advances have been made to identify and characterize E. amylovora strains from different regions and understand their evolutionary adaptation. Additionally, many efforts have been made in recent decades to stop the occurrence and impacts of fire blight, but in many countries, only preventive measures have been applied, as the application of antibiotics and copper-based compounds has become more restricted. Thus, new sustainable methods to control the pathogen are constantly required. This article presents a comprehensive review of the pathogen, from the phenotypic and molecular characterization methods applied to advances in comparative genomics and the development of new compounds for sustainable control of E. amylovora.