Michelle L. Heck
Principle Investigator
USDA-ARS, Emerging Pest and Pathogen Research Unit
Ithaca, New York, United States
Nicholas Larson
United States Department of Agriculture
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Guilherme Locatelli
University of Florida
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Ellen Cochrane
University of Florida
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Cody estes
President
Estes Citrus, Inc.
Vero Beach, Florida, United States
Lynn Johnson
Director and Statistical Consultant
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York, United States
Ariana Makar
United States Department of Agriculture
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Frank Giles
Editor in Chief
Citrus Industry Magazine
Newberry, Florida, United States
Marco Pitino
USDA-ARS
wapato, Washington, United States
Nursena Demirden
Scholar
DOE ORISE, USDA Agricultural Research Service
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Robert Shatters
Research Leader
USDA Agricultural Research Service
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Robert Adair
Florida Research Center
Vero Beach, Florida, United States
Lorenzo Rossi
Assistant Professor
University of Florida
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Riley McKenna
Vice President
McKenna and Associates Citrus, Inc.
Frostproof, Florida, United States
Brian Scully
Retired
USDA Agricultural Research Service
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Mark A. Ritenour, PhD
Professor
University of Florida/IRREC
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Randall Niedz
United States Department of Agriculture
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States
Citrus greening disease, or huanglongbing (HLB), is one of the most serious bacterial diseases of citrus. There is an immediate need to provide relief from HLB and to return the citrus industry to profitability. Typical methods of screening HLB therapeutic molecules involve laboratory-based assays to select molecules with antimicrobial properties, which are then tested in greenhouses and eventually in the field in a multiyear process. We developed a design-of-experiments (DOE) framework to rapidly screen molecules in bearing citrus trees using direct trunk injection. This was done to select molecules that improve tree health and fruit yield over a single growing season. Using a drug repurposing approach, we selected and screened chemistries with regulatory-friendly profiles for rapid industry adoption. Combining drug repurposing with DOE, we identified chemistries that had similar or better effects on visual tree health and yield indices than oxytetracycline (OTC) in 9-year-old Valencia trees infected with HLB. This new framework, called "Grove-First" to reflect the first evaluation of therapies on sick trees in a grove, has accelerated the identification and field testing of new HLB therapies. Some therapies are available for growers for immediate use and others will require further regulatory approval. A USDA-funded citrus grove, which is managed commercially, is available for any research team worldwide to evaluate new therapies in the Grove-First framework, which protects the intellectual property of teams testing therapies.