Pierluigi Bonello and Maria Bellizzi, Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; and Harry A. J. Hoitink, Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster, Ohio.
Pierluigi Bonello's laboratory, in collaboration with Dave Coplin's plant bacteriology lab in the Department of Plant Pathology at Ohio State, has become the center of investigation for this new, potentially very damaging disease.
With ongoing collaboration from the nursery industry, it should be possible to identify the causal agent of this disorder, which is the essential step in pursuing the development of rational control strategies for the nursery and landscape industries.
The authors would like to thank Carol Musselman and Michael Scott for their technical help. Much of this investigation could not have taken place without the assistance of Dave Coplin and his graduate student, Massimo Merighi, whom we would also like to thank for their contributions.