OMIBREED is among the national research projects on Xylella fastidiosa that will be able to strengthen its laboratory and field experimental activities thanks to a partnership agreement between the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection of the CNR in Bari (IPSP-CNR), Salov – through its Filippo Berio oil brand – the nonprofit organization Save the Olives, and the local farm Melcarne.
The agreement was signed last December and officially presented at the inauguration of a new experimental field in Ugento (Lecce), in the presence of Oscar-winning actress and Save the Olives patroness Helen Mirren. The event was attended by institutional representatives, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and an international delegation of scientists who had come to Puglia for the fifth edition of the European Conference on Xylella fastidiosa.
The partnership’s goal is to accelerate the selection and screening of plants resistant to Xylella fastidiosa. The OMIBREED project aims to shed light on the genetic mechanisms of this resistance to the pathogen in olive, almond, and cherry cultivars.
To this end, OMIBREED leverages the potential of cutting-edge techniques in the field of ‘omics’ sciences (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, phenomics, and epigenetics). These biotechnological approaches are not only aimed at identifying and selecting genotypes and genetic traits that characterize resistance to infection by the bacterium, but also at producing new varieties with these characteristics.
“Strengthening collaboration with producers and private partners is essential to developing these research programs, which require long-term investment,” said Maria Saponari, researcher at IPSP-CNR in Bari and coordinator of OMIBREED. Collaboration between public and private entities, he added, “ensures continuity and allows for close interaction between research and operations, facilitating the transfer of innovations.” “In the specific case of the OMIBREED project, the availability of large agricultural areas shared with private individuals is essential to ensure the availability of the experimental fields needed to evaluate the most promising cross-breeding progenies in the selection process for new varieties,” Saponari concluded.
The initial phase of the project saw a development in olive tree genetic mapping unthinkable just a few years ago. OMIBREED, thanks to its integration with other research projects in Italy and internationally, has enabled the molecular characterization of over 2,600 olive tree genotypes from diverse origins, leading to the identification of 1,500 unique molecular profiles. In early 2026, symptomatic and diagnostic data were analyzed on approximately 200 cultivars/selections exposed to natural Xylella fastidiosa infection in open fields over the past 10 years.
OMIBREED is one of three national projects funded by the Ministry of Agriculture to support research on genetic resistance to the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa in olive trees and other crops. The goal is to leverage this research to launch crossbreeding programs capable of expanding the panel of available plants with resistance or tolerance to Xylella fastidiosa, to regenerate areas destroyed by the epidemic and prevent new outbreaks in areas at high risk of the bacterium’s spread.
