General Information: This unculturable bacterium causes Zebra Chip disease of potato. The bacterium was identified in 2008 and named as "Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum" The disease causes million dollar loss in U.S. potato industry. Liberibacters are phloem-limited bacteria that are spread from infected to healthy plants. The species epithet 'solanacearum' refers to the family of plant hosts found to contain these organisms.