IIGB/CEPCEB researcher and associate professor of plant pathology and microbiology Hailing Jin has potentially developed early diagnosis markers for “citrus greening” or Huanglongbing (HLB) – probably the most devastating citrus disease threatening the global citrus industry.

Her findings will appear in the journal Molecular Plant in which she reports having profiled small ribonucleic acid (sRNA) from citrus plants, some of which were affected by HLB. Her research showed that several sRNAs were found to have been induced specifically by HLB.

The study also showed that the diseased trees suffered from severe phosphorus deficiency and that application of phosphorus solutions to the diseased trees significantly alleviated HLB symptoms, thus improving fruit yield in a three-year field trial in southwest Florida. She cautioned that the application of phosphorus solutions did not cure the trees. Her research suggests, however, that additional phosphorus application may help diseased trees look healthier and improve fruit yield.

Jin was joined in the research by Hongwei Zhao, Ruobai Sun, Chellappan Padmanabhan, Airong Wang, Michael D. Coffey, Thomas Girke, Timothy J. Close, Mikeal Roose and Georgios Vidalakis at UC Riverside; and researchers at Nanjing Agricultural University, China; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, China; and the University of Florida.