Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this project addresses the ecdre…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this project addresses the ecdre priorities a cure for HLB-infected trees and strategies for maintaining their productivity and a delivery system for therapeutics nutrition and other HLB solutions. In this proposal we will first explore all potential uses of NMV-M/CFL as a biocontrol agent to control HLB. We will understand how this virus suppresses HLB and identify the best citrus varieties (scion and rootstock combinations) which can tolerate high viral and LAS titers for application both in new plantings and existing HLB-affected groves. Second we will explore our newly developed NMV-M/CFL-based expression vector and optimize its antimicrobial or anti-psyllid expression and delivery system with known antimicrobial peptides or sirna. Concurrently we will conduct active outreach and extension activities to disseminate our project results to growers stakeholders and the public.