Antonio Vargas de Oliveira Figueira is a professor in the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA/USP). Antonio and his team investigated biochemical and physiological changes caused in tomatoes by the fungus Moniliophthora perniciosa, which causes witches’ broom disease in cocoa trees. They used the tomato as a genetic model because of its small size, allowing them to analyze the entire impact of infection on the productivity and physiology of affected plants. “The study demonstrated that infection by the fungus led to the formation of a metabolic drain in the affected region that drastically reduced fruit production and negatively impacted root formation, which could explain the large-scale impact of the disease on cocoa production in southern Bahia.”
Facility: LNBR/Metabolomics