CRDF Considers Research Management Committee Recommendations

The Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) convened its November board of directors meeting to take up recommendations from its Research Management Committee.

According to Rick Dantzler, CRDF chief operating officer, one of those recommendations was funding a proposal from Swadesh Santra, who is a professor of chemistry with the University of Central Florida.

“This funding would allow Dr. Santra to finish his development of novel injection carriers for improving oxytetracycline and zinc distribution in HLB-affected trees,” Dantzler said. “This also is subject to a condition which I need to discuss with the prospective registrant.”

The board also funded a proposal from Jawaad Qureshi, an entomologist with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) to determine resistance data in Asian citrus psyllids (ACP) to Bacillus thuringiensis proteins used to kill ACP nymphs. However, the second and final year of funding is contingent on the ability to create a resistant population of ACPs.

“Following the recommendation of the Research Management Committee, funding was not advanced for a mealybug proposal for citrus under protective screen,” Dantzler said. “And a foliar phosphate pre-proposal was not invited to full proposal status. Manjul Dutt, UF/IFAS assistant professor of horticultural sciences, was invited to submit a full proposal for his plans to sequence the Parson Brown sweet orange to identify novel CRISPR targets associated with HLB tolerance, higher Brix and lower fruit drop relative to other early-season sweet orange cultivars.”