Citrus Tree of the Future Still Years Away

Not surprisingly, the focus of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) centers on providing growers with help to overcome huanglongbing (HLB) disease.

CRDF President Morgan McKenna Porter believes that help will best come with the development of the “tree of the future.” She says that tree does not have to be completely resistant to citrus greening. As long as the tree tolerates the disease, produces a steady crop and doesn’t experience fruit drop, it would provide long-term hope for Florida’s citrus industry.

“Almost everything we currently have under contract can fall into one of two categories: 1) bridge or horticultural type of therapies that can help a grower live with and fight HLB and 2) a long-term solution like a tree that has genetic tolerance or resistance,” Porter said. “When we look at the tree of the future, we’re looking for resistance or tolerance to HLB.

“The slam dunk is complete resistance. A tolerant tree that allows us to reduce our costs in horticultural therapies could be a win as well. We are looking at finding that tree through conventional breeding. Right now, we’re doing a very big inventory of all of the conventional germplasm that’s out there, making sure we’re not missing something we already have planted. We’re also investing in conventional breeding of new varieties and biotech engineering a new variety that would be edited to have resistance or tolerance to HLB.”

While Porter’s belief in the tree of the future is encouraging, she cautions that it may be some time before that dream becomes a reality.

“Out of the absolute best-case scenario, we’re five to seven years away, and from a longer-case scenario, it could be 10-plus years. From the biotech standpoint, researchers have been working on it, but the push is just now being made,” Porter said. “When you do biotech engineering, you’re often going back all the way to the juvenility stage of the tree. It takes a long time even just to know some of the absolutely crucial data that a grower needs in order to plant that variety.”