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Florida Citrus Growers Turn to Gene-Edited Trees to Fight Greening Disease
Confirmed
In Short: Florida citrus growers are planting gene-edited trees in hopes of saving their industry from the devastating citrus greening disease.
Florida citrus growers are turning to gene-edited trees as a last-ditch effort to save their industry from the citrus greening disease, a bacterial infection that has devastated the state's citrus groves.
The disease, spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, attacks the trees' immune system, making them vulnerable to infection.
Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade association representing citrus growers, noted that before the disease arrived in Florida in the late 1990s, the state was shipping out around 300 million boxes of fruit each season.
However, the disease has decimated citrus production, with some growers, like Ron English, forced to close their businesses.
Soilcea, a Tampa-based company, has developed a rootstock using CRISPR gene-editing technology that could potentially resist the greening disease.
Citrus growers are now waiting to see if the genetic modifications, which the Environmental Protection Agency approved earlier this year, will help the trees survive and thrive.
What's confirmed
- A bacterial infection is wiping out Florida's citrus trees.
- Citrus growers in Florida are planting new trees that have been modified using gene-editing technology to ward against the lethal citrus greening disease.
- Now growers are waiting to see if the genetic modifications, which the Environmental Protection Agency approved earlier this year, will keep the trees alive.
- The disease is spread by a tiny winged insect called an Asian citrus psyllid.
- In the late 1990s, before citrus greening arrived in Florida, growers were shipping out around 300 million boxes of fruit each season, said Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade association that represents citrus growers.
- "See the discoloration, that's the disease already working through the tree," he said.
- It attacks the trees' immune system, so they can't fight the infection.
- Ron English's family ran a citrus business in Valrico, Fla., for generations until greening wiped it out, forcing them to close in 2015.
What's still developing
- Nothing material beyond the confirmed record.