Can Genetic Engineering Save the Florida Orange?
Genetically modified oranges might save Florida's blighted groves—if Americans will drink the juice.
From there, the bacterial disease incubates in the tree's roots, then moves back up the trunk in full force, causing nutrient flows to seize up. Leaves turn yellow, and the oranges, deprived of sugars from the leaves, remain green, sour, and hard. Many fall before harvest, brown necrotic flesh ringing failed stems.
For the past decade, Florida's oranges have been literally starving.
Since it first appeared in 2005, citrus greening, also known by its Chinese name, huanglongbing, has swept across Florida's groves like a flood. With no hills to block it, the Asian citrus psyllid—the invasive aphid relative that carries the disease—has infected nearly every orchard in the state.
By one estimate, 80 percent of Florida's citrus trees are infected and declining.
The
