Twenty First seminar of the new Xylella Seminar Series jointly organised by the EU funded Bexyl project, EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) and Auburn University. Lena Pesenti, UCLouvain (Belgium), gave a presentation titled Microbial Battles in the Xylem: How Endophytes Interact with Xf in Salicaceae? 

Lena Pesenti is a last year Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Claude Bragard. She began working on Xylella fastidiosa during her Master’s thesis, focusing on the identification of potential hosts in Northern Europe, particularly among Salicaceae species. These trees may act as efficient hosts—and possibly as stepping stones and reservoirs—for the propagation of the disease in northern regions. Her Ph.D. research investigates how xylem-inhabiting bacterial endophytes influence the outcome of X. fastidiosa infections, helping to explain the observed symptomatic/asymptomatic duality.