Aline Sartori Guidolin.

Maize (Zea mays L.) serves as a crucial staple crop globally, playing a pivotal role in ensuring food security and promoting economic development. It is not only an important source of food but also widely used in various fields such as feed, food processing, and energy production. China and Brazil are top producers of corn with yields of 289 and 124 million tons in the 2023/2024 season, but they are also among the three largest consumers of corn, which is of crucial importance as a diet component in their animal production chains (USDA, 2024). However, viral diseases pose a serious threat to the safety and sustainable development of the maize industry, especially with the current intensification of agriculture in the last two decades, based on irrigation, non-tillage and other practices that allow two or three maize plantings per year in some tropical regions e.g. in central-south Brazil, and consequent increase in virus inoculum pressure and in insect vector populations (Bedendo and Lopes, 2019). It is reported that more than 50 types of viruses can infect maize individually or in combination, causing varying degrees of damage (Redinbaugh and Stewart, 2018). In particular, maize dwarf mosaic disease is a widely distributed disease that can lead to yield losses of up to 20 to 80, and in severe cases, even 90 to 100, posing a significant threat to the safe production of maize in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe, especially in the maize-producing areas of South American countries like Brazil (Fuchs et al., 1990; Kannan et al., 2018). In these regions, sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) is the main pathogen causing maize dwarf mosaic disease (Gonçalves et al., 2011). The applicant's laboratory has been long committed to the study of maize viruses and diseases, accumulating rich technical and research platforms. In recent years, through comparative transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, combined with the study of maize gene functions, a preliminary molecular interaction network between SCMV and maize has been constructed, identifying a series of maize genes that are resistant or susceptible to SCMV; recently, by using gene editing technology to knock out the SCMV-susceptible genes in maize, a resistant maize line to SCMV has been successfully created (Xie et al., 2024). Maize streak virus disease is a viral disease caused by members of the Mastrevirus genus of the Geminiviridae family, which has caused severe damage in Africa and poses a threat to local food security (Bosque-Pérez, 2000). In 2018, a new member of the Mastrevirus genus, maize striate mosaic virus (MSMV), was discovered in Goiás State, Brazil, causing symptoms such as stripes and mosaic on maize leaves (Fontenele et al., 2018). In recent years, MSMV has been detected in various other maize-producing areas of Brazil, in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul (Oliveira et al., 2022; Albuquerque et al., 2023). The co-applicant was the first to confirm that the corn leafhopper, Dalbulus maidis (DeLong Wolcott) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), is the vector of MSMV (Vilanova et al., 2022). Considering the wide geographical distribution, high population, mobility and transmission ability of the corn leafhopper (Nault 1990, Oliveira et al. 2007, 2013; Maluta et al. 2023), MSMV may spread rapidly and become a new major disease on maize in South America, as it was recently reported in Argentina (Ruiz-Posse et al., 2023). Preliminary studies indicated that, in susceptible hybrids, MSMV causes a drastic reduction in plant growth (Vilanova et al., 2022), and significant root and production damage (Vilanova, E.S and Lopes, J.RS., unpublished data). Interestingly, under field conditions, MSMV is commonly associated with other maize viruses in mixed infections and the co-applicant has also observed some inter.

O Centro de Pesquisa Aplicada em Inovação e Sustentabilidade da Citricultura foi proposto a partir de uma demanda dos citricultores paulistas, face a escalada na incidência do greening no Estado de São Paulo a partir de 2022. Trata-se de centro para desenvolver ciência voltada para a solução de problemas reais da sociedade, com financiamento público e privado. Apesar de propor uma vertente de pesquisa básica e outra vertente aplicada, o objetivo de curto prazo do centro é recuperar a sanidade da citricultura paulista. O Centro é formado por 75 pesquisadores de 16 Instituições de pesquisa nacionais e internacionais que em sinergia, terão o objetivo comum de interromper a epidemia da doença e alcançar seu manejo sustentável.

O Centro de Excelência em Controle Biológico FAPESP-KOPPERT tem como missão desenvolver pesquisas, produtos e tecnologias que resultem no uso e fortalecimento do controle biológico de pragas para uma agricultura sustentável no Brasil. O Centro conta com uma equipe de pesquisadores de alto nível que desenvolvem ações inter e multidisciplinares envolvendo projetos em cinco linhas de pesquisa: (I) Prospecção de novos biocontroladores; (II) Processos de produção e automação de macro e micro-organismos benéficos; (III) Novas formulações de micro-organismos (fungos, bactérias e metabólitos secundários); (IV) Avaliação de riscos e benefícios do Controle Biológico; e (V) Estratégias para utilização de Controle Biológico no MIP.