Mireille ANSALDI

As the project grows, we had more and more questions about our bacteriophages approach. Indeed, we wanted in the first place using Xylella fastidiosa’s natural phages, but we met some difficulties. We went to see Ms ANSALDI, which is directing the “phagique cycle and bacteria metabolism” unity research in LCB, CNRS Marseille, France. As an expert of the field, she is an obvious choice to seek advice on the matter. She generously grant us time for an interview.

Thanks to her answers, we learned that Xylella fastidiosa certainly have some resistance mechanism, such as CRISPR and restriction enzyme. We had doubt about it, now we are fixed. She also told us that we could work on Xanthomonas ? instead of Xylella fastidiosa, since the binding proteins are similar. Indeed, the work on Xylella fastidiosa is not allowed in P1 or P2 lab instead of Xanthomonas ? which is a P2 lab security allowed.

Jacques VAN HELDEN

Marie-Agnès JACQUES