RIVERSIDE – (INT) – Scientists at UC Riverside will play a vital role at stopping a disease that is taking a heavy toll on the citrus industry.

The US Department of Agriculture has awarded the team a $4 million grant to identify genes that make citrus susceptible to Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening disease.

The bacterial plant disease is fatal to citrus trees. It has devastated citrus trees in Asia, South America and Florida. More recently it has been found in Texas and California.

“This disease is getting more and more scary because we have no cure,” said Wenbo Ma, an associate professor of plant pathology at UC Riverside and lead researcher on the project. “Once a tree is infected, all a grower can do is watch it die.”

Ma and the other scientists will use the funding to study the disease at a molecular level to identify ways to stop it from killing citrus trees and develop varieties that are resistant to the disease.

Story Date: February 13, 2016