Tiffany Lowe-Power (she/her/hers)
Asst Professor
Department of Plant Pathology, University of California
Davis, CA, USA
Vienna Elmgreen
Department of Plant Pathology, University of California
Davis, California, United States
Benjamin Ramirez
Department of Plant Pathology, University of California
Davis, California, United States
N. Tessa Pierce-Ward
Assistant Researcher
Department of Population Health and Reproduction, University of California, Davis, CA,USA
Davis, California, United States
The Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) is a globally distributed, diverse group of soilborne pathogens that causes devastating wilt and rot disease on a broad range of economically important plant species. RSSC pathogen location and host data remains difficult to access because information is fragmented across hundreds of publications and other sources. This project aims to provide tools to easily access and visualize consolidated RSSC pathogen isolation data. We curated and cleaned the RSSC Diversity Database using OpenRefine, and we developed a new, interactive Ralstonia Wilt Dashboard using RShiny. The RSSC Diversity Database is a publicly accessible document that consolidates epidemiologically important RSSC strain data into a structured spreadsheet that catalogs information from 9,931 strains from 304 sources published from 1971 to 2024. Each source reports one-or-more Ralstonia strains isolated from 504 host plant species from 107 geographic regions. The Ralstonia Wilt Dashboard is an interactive dashboard designed to explore and analyze the genetic diversity of the RSSC. This comprehensive tool visualizes data in the form of maps, charts, and tables. With the dashboard, users can adjust the visuals to display data from specific pathogen lineages, locations, and / or plant host. These tools aid in communicating comprehensive epidemiological patterns to researchers, regulatory scientists, and other stakeholders to strengthen plant health research and policy.