Grapevines Pretreated with Biocontrol Bacteria Have an Altered Transcriptional Response to Xylella fastidiosa and a Reduction in Pierce's Disease Severity

In a previous DNA-based microbiome study of grapevines in areas of Pierce's disease (PD) pressure, we determined that taxa belonging to the Pseudomonas and Achromobacter genera negatively associated with PD severity and titer of the causal agent, Xylella fastidiosa, leading us to hypothesize that these taxa suppress PD and could be deployed as biocontrols. Here, we tested this hypothesis using two bacterial isolates from the grapevine endosphere, Pseudomonas viridiflava and Achromobacter vitis. We demonstrate that pretreatment with these two isolates significantly reduced PD symptoms and X. fastidiosa titer, comparable to that of a known PD biocontrol agent, Paraburkholderia phytofirmans PsJN. We monitored early spatial transcriptional responses using genome-wide transcriptional profiling in vines that were pretreated with the biocontrol strains and then inoculated with X. fastidiosa. We coupled this with phenotyping of internal tylose development and external disease symptoms and bacterial titer and determined that grapevines pretreated with the biocontrols A. vitis and PsJN developed fewer tyloses and PD symptoms and underwent major transcriptional reprogramming in response to X. fastidiosa. These included upregulation of genes in auxin- and ethylene-signaling pathways linked to tylose development. In contrast, P. viridiflava pretreatment also resulted in a reduction of tyloses and PD symptoms but did not induce major transcriptional changes in vines, suggesting that it likely has a direct inhibitory effect on X. fastidiosa through antibiosis. Using these data, we propose a model that incorporates timely and effective deployment of tyloses driven by induction of ethylene and auxin pathways as a key factor in PD resistance. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .