New, Faster Solutions Needed for Citrus Survival

University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researchers have made significant progress in finding ways to manage citrus greening disease. But solutions needs to be expedited for the sake of the citrus industry’s future in Florida.

Scott Angle, UF/IFAS senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, emphasized that point during last week’s Citrus & Specialty Crop Expo in Tampa, Florida.

“We need to make progress faster than we have. This industry is not going to survive another five to 10 years without something more dramatic, more significant, sooner rather than later,” Angle said. “I tell my scientists we don’t have five years to wait anymore. We need something in the field working, in three, maybe four years, at the most. That suggests that we need other approaches to create trees that are resistant to HLB.

“This is a problem where the solutions seem to be very difficult to find. We’ve been working on traditional technologies, plant breeding, for example, to find a way to create a tree that is resistant or tolerant to HLB,” Angle said. “We’re making progress on that, but it’s not to the point where we think it’s going to be the only solution for the industry.

“Consumers are more accepting of GMOs now than they were 10 or 20 years ago. Secondly, this is an industry that may not survive unless there are new solutions. The confluence of those two needs has resulted in our recognition that we need to be creating trees that have been genetically modified to get solutions into the field more quickly.

“There are technologies through genetic manipulation — like CRISPR — that are not considered genetically modified. This is where we don’t insert any new DNA into the plant. It modifies existing DNA. If we can do that, and indeed I think we can, then we won’t have to call these new trees genetically modified. But it remains to be seen.

“The progress is there. But the question is: Will we get this commercialized soon enough to make a significant difference? I think we will.”