U.S.: Citrus Greening Still Throwing New Curveballs at Scientists and Growers

Citrus greening (aka, HLB) has been a major pain for Florida growers and a puzzle for scientists from more than 15 years, according to an article at Growing Produce. Despite all the time and money put into fighting and studying the disease, it’s still revealing itself. And at the heart of the situation is a complex exchange between the tree and the CLas (Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus) bacterium.

In a new paper authored by University of Florida researchers and published in the journal Plant Pathology, discoveries of new ways the bacteria interact with a citrus tree’s natural defenses are highlighted. The findings shed light on the complexity of the disease path within the tree and what it means for scientists looking to mitigate its deadly impact.

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Amit Levy, UF/IFAS Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology, and post-doctoral researcher Chiara Bernardini discovered how the bacteria and citrus tree engage in a “back-and-forth” reactionary relationship. He and others showed that once infected with the CLas bacterium, the tree’s defense system starts to generate callose in the phloem, a material that essentially “plugs” the phloem and generates something called “reactive oxygen species” or ROS.

In plants, ROS is involved in a plant’s defense systems and impacts a plant’s tolerance to various types of stress. Presence of a pathogen like CLas can increase ROS production to a negative effect and eventually cause cell death.

Read more at Growing Produce.

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