HLB Control: A New Potential Method
A University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researcher has found a material that can be used to silence essential genes within Asian citrus psyllids and in the HLB-causing bacterial pathogen that the psyllids spread. The material is 2’-deoxy-2’-flouro-d-arabinonucleic acid antisense oligonucleotides (FANA ASO), small-sized single-stranded nucleic acids.
The discovery was made by Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski, an associate professor of entomology and nematology at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center.
Pelz-Stelinski and her team were able to reduce the HLB disease pathogen in the psyllid and in citrus, leading to less transmission and a potential reduction in disease severity.
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