Huanglongbing (HLB) presumably caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) threatens the commercial U.S. citrus crop of an annual value of $3 billion. The earliest shift in metabolite profiles of leaves from greenhouse-grown sweet orange trees infected with Clas, and of healthy leaves, was characterized by HPLC-MS concurrently with PCR testing for the presence of Clas bacteria and observ...

Papain-like cysteine proteases (PLCPs) play important roles in plant-pathogen interactions. In citrus, PLCPs are targeted by effectors from Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), the causal agent of Huanglongbing (HLB). To study interactions between Citrus sinensis and CLas, we identified 33 candidate CsPLCP genes HMMsearch with Peptidase_C1 domain (PF00112), further confirmed them using loc...

Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri Kuwayama) transmits a bacterium ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ (CLas) putatively responsible for a devastating citrus disease known as Asiatic huanglongbing (HLB) (citrus greening disease). The psyllid and disease have invaded many citrus-growing regions including the United States, where the disease is seriously jeopardizing the Florida citrus indust...

Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus "Las" is a phloem-limited bacterial plant pathogen, and the most prevalent species of Liberibacter associated with citrus huanglongbing (HLB), a devastating disease of citrus worldwide. Although, the complete sequence of the Las genome provides the basis for studying functional genomics of Las and molecular mechanisms of Las-plant interactions, the functional c...

Citrus greening or huanglongbing (HLB) is a devastating disease of citrus. HLB is associated with the phloem-limited fastidious prokaryotic alpha-proteobacterium 'Candidatus Liberibacter spp.' In this report, we used sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) leaf tissue infected with 'Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus' and compared this with healthy controls. Investigation of the host response was examined with ...

Nutrient resorption processes in the plants infected by pathogen remain poorly understood. Huanglongbing (HLB) is a destructive disease of citrus. HLB-pathogen 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' grows specifically in the phloem of hosts and may cause problems in the plant vascular system after infection. Therefore, it brings a great concern about the phloem nutrient transport and nutrient intr...

Zebra Chip (ZC) is an emerging plant disease that causes aboveground decline of potato shoots and generally results in unusable tubers. This disease has led to multi-million dollar losses for growers in the central and western United States over the past decade and impacts the livelihood of potato farmers in Mexico and New Zealand. ZC is associated with 'Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum', a...

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a destructive citrus disease. The leading cause of HLB is Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. Fatty acid biosynthesis is essential for bacterial viability and has been validated as a target for the discovery of novel antibacterial agents. Enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (also called ENR or FabI and a product of the fabI gene) is an enzyme required in a critical step o...

Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are nonautonomous transposons (devoid of the transposase gene tps) that affect gene functions through insertion/deletion events. No transposon has yet been reported to occur in “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus,” an alphaproteobacterium associated with citrus Huanglongbing (HLB, yellow shoot disease). In this study, two MITEs, MCLas-A and...