Diagnostics for Citrus Greening Disease

Background:

Citrus greening disease, also known as Huanglongbing (HLB), is a bacterial disease caused by insect-transmission and phloem-limited bacterial pathogens. It is a serious threat to the global citrus industry, decimating many citrus trees and costing the economy billions in damages annually. The most commonly used method of nucleic-acid based pathogen detection is not ideal with low-titer (low concentration of antibodies to antigen) and it cannot detect the erratic distribution of the bacterial pathogens.

Brief Description:

UCR researchers have developed a proof-of-concept for using secreted proteins of bacterial pathogens to detect bacterial diseases. These abundant and stable secreted proteins serve as robust detection markers for immunoassay-based diagnostics. Compared to current methods, this novel method is more high-throughput, economical, and able to monitor the pathogens dispersed throughout the plant transportation system.

• Robust detection - secreted proteins are abundant and stable
• Rapid, cost-effective processing of large samples
• Monitors variable distribution of pathogens, and not just at the site of infection
• Proof-of-concept experiment available in a simple kit

• Identify infected trees where pathogens are unevenly distributed
• Field survey for plants