Scientists Teaming up to Wage High Tech War Against Citrus Greening

University of Florida scientists are joining forces at the Crop Transformation Center (CTC) to wage a high-tech war against plant pests and diseases threatening Florida’s crops, including citrus greening. The urgency to find a solution to citrus greening spawned interest to include citrus as an initial focus of the CTC.

Through the CTC, faculty at the main UF campus in Gainesville and at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred are working to find citrus varieties that can tolerate or even resist citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing (HLB).

The CTC was established three years ago by UF/IFAS and the state’s citrus industry.

“Our purpose is to use cutting-edge tools — like gene editing, precision breeding and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven data analysis — to create plants that are healthier, more productive and more resilient to challenges like disease and climate stress,” says Charlie Messina, Director of the CTC and a UF/IFAS Professor of Horticultural Sciences. “We use AI to study how proteins in bacteria and plants interact, so we can stop the bacteria from taking over the plant and messing up how it works.”

Researchers at the Crop Transformation Center are identifying key genes that give plants natural tolerance to greening, introducing those traits into new citrus varieties and testing them in collaboration with Florida growers. CTC scientists study genes to enhance the plant-immune system so it can defend itself against greening.

Drawing on expertise from Messina and others with deep industry experience, the center is rethinking the traditional academic research pipeline by streamlining each step to move discoveries from lab to field faster.

“Our ultimate goal is simply to accelerate innovation in agriculture, protect Florida’s signature crops — starting with citrus — and ensure that science in the lab leads to lasting impact in the grove,” Messina adds.

For more, continue reading at blogs.ifas.ufl.edu.