How to save the world’s orange groves
A bacterium threatens them. RNA may be their saviour
CITRUS-GREENING disease is a bacterial infection of citrus-fruit trees, spread by insects called psyllids. It was first recorded a century ago, in China, and it has since spread widely. It can be extremely harmful. Within a decade of its arrival in Florida, for example, it had wreaked $4.6bn-worth of damage and reduced yields by 74%. If its spread continues, says Georgios Vidalakis of the University of California, Riverside, who directs California’s Citrus Clonal Protection Programme, citrus fruits risk becoming niche products.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Lemon tonic”
From the May 22nd 2021 edition
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