The Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) held its board of directors meeting on Sept. 30 in Lake Placid, Florida. During the meeting, the board reviewed recommendations from the CRDF Research Management Committee.
“We had a productive meeting and addressed several key issues,” said CRDF Chief Operating Officer Rick Dantzler. “CRDF issued a Request for Proposals (RFPs) to explore methods for accelerating the transition of our most promising germplasm out of juvenility. Because these non-genetically modified, CRISPR-edited trees were developed from juvenile tissue, they take significantly longer to reach full production, delaying our ability to evaluate their potential.”
Juvenility is the developmental stage in citrus plants characterized by vegetative growth—such as leaves, stems and thorns—during which plants cannot flower or fruit, even under favorable environmental conditions.
“We received six pre-proposals for consideration,” Dantzler continued. “The Research Management Committee recommended revising and resubmitting two of them, a decision the board ratified. The remaining four were sufficiently similar, so the board endorsed asking the principal investigators to consider consolidating them into a single proposal. We’ve been in discussions with the investigators to address this.”
The board also reviewed two full proposals. One was not advanced, but the principal investigator was invited to incorporate one of its objectives into the other proposal, which aligns with the research goals. This revised proposal will return to the Research Management Committee for further review.
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