Alina Buechler

Data Blitz Presentation

"Combating Citrus Greening"

Citrus Greening Disease is caused by an unculturable bacteria that is causing devasting harm to the citrus industry.

Poster Presentation

Localization of putative Bacterial Effectors causing Citrus Greening Disease

Huanglongbing (HLB) or Citrus Greening, is a bacterial disease putting the citrus industry in grave danger. At the current time, there are mediocre strategies put in place to combat this disease, but a solution is necessary before the entire citrus industry falls. Our research focuses on understanding the function of putative effector genes of the pathogenic bacteria and subsequently developing strategies to improve citrus resistance to the pathogen. The gram-negative bacteria, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), uses the transmission insect called Asian citrus psyllid, to infiltrate the phloem tissue of the host, hijacking its nutrients for its own development. Our previous work identified four putative CLAE genes that potentially induce cell death when transiently expressed in the surrogate plant system tobacco, suggesting that these genes play a role in regulating host defense. In this project, these four CLAE genes were selected for GFP fusion and cloning into the expression vector pGR118. Each construct has been transformed into Agrobacterium tumefaciens for future use in conformational transient expression assays and localization. GFP localization will reveal their location within the cell, which has only been predicted up to this point. Further characterization of each gene will reveal the function of the genes and possibly lead to better understand the pathogenesis of CLas.