After groves were ravaged for decades by a disease, new EPA-approved genetic technologies from UF are giving citrus growers a chance to rebuild
FROSTPROOF, Fla.—Scientists may have found the solution to Florida’s orange-production crisis.
For 20 years, its orange groves have been ravaged by an incurable disease that causes fruit to drop before it is ripe, and leaves it tasting bitter. Florida’s orange production—more than 90% of which is used for juice—is down 95% since the arrival of the disease, called citrus greening. Last year, 60,000 orange acres went out of production—26% of Florida’s remaining total. Now, about half a million acres are sitting dormant, and other abandoned groves have been absorbed for cattle grazing or Florida’s lucrative development sprawl.
This year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved two UF technologies that are giving the battered industry a chance at rebirth. One creates disease-resistant trees through Crispr gene editing. The other puts a harmless virus into trees to help them resist the citrus greening. UF startup Soilcea has sold more than 300,000 gene-edited, disease-resistant trees; Silvec, which licenses UF’s citrus tristeza virus (CTV), uses the harmless virus to bring defensin’s protective power to the plants.
Read more about The Race to Save Florida Orange Industry From Total Collapse.
