Plaguing the local Julian apple farms that reside just an hour away from our high school that help power the economic powerhouse of the Californian agriculture industry...
...fire blight is a ravaging plant disease caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora that disfigures and kills particularly apple and pear trees worldwide.
Not only does this devastating disease cripple apple economies worldwide, but it can also quickly shrivel the family-owned farm and ravage entire the life’s work of hardworking farmers.
“I had to clear one third of the farm, 6,600 trees last year, and 80% of my tree nursery... I didn’t know whether I would be a fruit grower any more at the end of the year”
-Edwin Huber, a lifelong apple farmer devastated by fireblight in Switzerland
The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that in 2021, humans worldwide consumed over 90,000 kt of apples, a metric that has grown by over 25% in the past decade.
In 2023, the US alone lost an estimated
$100 million
in damage due to fire blight in the apple industry.
This is a pressing issue that is devastating our greatest economies
and our hardest working farmers.
Our Solution
Our project aims to genetically engineer Pantoea agglomerans, a non-pathogenic gram-negative bacteria, to produce an antibiotic compound called darobactin. We hope to find a definitive solution, end this devastating tree disease, and restore stability within the apple industry.
