Digital image processing is employed in numerous areas of biology to identify and analyse problems. This approach aims to use image processing techniques for citrus canker disease detection through leaf inspection. Citrus canker is a severe bacterium-based citrus plant disease. The symptoms of citrus canker disease typically occur in the leaves, branches, fruits and thorns. The leaf images show...

Scirtothrips aurantii Faure (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is a major pest of citrus fruit in subtropical southern Africa. Population monitoring is an important aspect of S. aurantii control, but additional information is required on its phenology. Dispersal of mature larvae onto the soil surface from the tree canopy, and emergence of adults, were assessed using dispersal/emergence (D/E) traps in an...

Carrizo citrange (Citrus sinensisxPoncirus trifoliata) is a citrus hybrid widely used as a rootstock, whose genetic manipulation to improve different growth characteristics is of high agronomic interest. In this work, transgenic Carrizo citrange plants have been produced overexpressing sense and antisense CcGA20ox1 (a key enzyme of GA biosynthesis) under control of the 35S promoter to modify pl...

The constitutive characters of plants can be structural or biochemical and play an important role in their defence against pathogens. Citrus postbloom fruit drop (PFD) caused by Colletotrichum spp. is one of the most important fungal diseases of citrus. The pathogen infects the flowers, leading to premature fruit drop and reducing citrus production. However, flower buds smaller than 8 mm long a...

Nearly 65,000 citrus EST (Expressed Sequence Tags) have been investigated using the CitEST project database. Microsatellites were investigated in the unigene sequences from Citrus spp. and Poncirus trifoliata. From these sequences, approximately 35% of the non-redundant ESTs contained SSRs. The frequencies of different SSR motifs were similar between Citrus spp and trifoliate orange. In general...

Argyrotaenia sphaleropa (Meyrick) is associated with various fruit species in South America. This tortricid was first detected in citrus, Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck, in Brazil, in commercial groves in northern Paraná, during the 1994/95-crop season. The aim of this work was to study the biology of this lepidopteran under laboratory conditions (28 +/- 2 degrees C, 70 +/-10% UR, 14h photofase) u...

Plant tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC) converts tryptophan into tryptamine, precursor of indolealkylamine alkaloids. The recent finding of tryptamine metabolites in Citrus plants leads to hypothesize the existence of TDC activity in this genus. Here, we report for the first time that, in Citrus x limon seedlings, deuterium labeled tryptophan is decarboxylated into tryptamine, from which successiv...

Fruit juices of four species of Citrus genus i.e. C. maxima, C. limon, C. sinensis, C. reticulata were analyzed for their nutritional content (i.e. soluble sugar, total RNA & pentose sugar, free amino acids, soluble protein, total phenolic compounds and vitamin-C) and antioxidant potential. The content of all studied parameters varied from one species to another but no specific trend was observ...

Species of Diaporthe are considered important plant pathogens, saprobes, and endophytes on a wide range of plant hosts. Several species are well-known on citrus, either as agents of pre- or post-harvest infections, such as dieback, melanose and stem-end rot on fruit. In this study we explored the occurrence, diversity and pathogenicity of Diaporthe species associated with Citrus and allied gene...

Greasy spot of citrus, caused by Zasmidium citri-griseum (= Mycosphaerella citri), is widely distributed in the Caribbean Basin, inducing leaf spots, premature defoliation, and yield loss. Greasy spot-like symptoms were frequently observed in humid citrus-growing regions in Panama as well as in semi-arid areas in Spain, but disease aetiology was unknown. Citrus-growing areas in Panama and Spain...