Update of the Xylella fastidiosa outbreak in France: two new variants detected and a new region affected

Xylella fastidiosa is a xylem-limited bacterium native to America and classified as a priority pest for EU regulation. Since 2013, X. fastidiosa has been identified in European countries with a Mediterranean climate, such as Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, with different subspecies and sequence types (ST) detected. Since 2015 X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex ST6 and/or ST7 has been detected in Corsica and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in almost 70 plant species, whereas X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca ST53 has been found in only two host plants. In this study, we report two new variants, recently detected in two separated areas of the PACA region, genetically related to the subspecies multiplex and assigned to (i) ST88 detected on Polygala myrtifolia , Hebe sp., Osteospermum ecklonis , Lavandula x intermedia , Coronilla glauca and Euryops chrysanthemoides and (ii) ST89: detected on Myoporum sp. and Viburnum tinus . Both variant strains were isolated in vitro. Moreover, we report here the identification of X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex ST6 in a new region of the South of France, Occitanie (Aude), in plants from natural and urban settings and from a nursery.