植物病理学および微生物学ジャーナル

概要

Can CRISPR Win the Battle against Huanglongbing?

Song X, Bhattarai K, Lv D, Gao F and Ying X

Huanglongbing (HLB) is the most destructive disease of citrus. The causal agent is Candidatus Liberibacter spp. The pathogen is phloem-limited gram-negative bacterium. HLB has caused huge loss in citrus fruit production. All commercial citrus cultivars can be infected by this disease and there is no cure for it. Disease detection, host responses upon infection are under review in this article. Because conventional breeding can’t confer citrus resistance to HLB, transgenic approach is an alternative way to produce disease resistant citrus facing the urgent need. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) is the most recent and advanced genome editing technology that has been successfully applied to develop canker resistant citrus. In this review, the potential application of CRISPR technology in citrus resistance to HLB is discussed.