Greening disease has devastated the citrus crop in Florida, but University of Florida scientists are using genes from another plant and putting them into Hamlin oranges to develop citrus plants that fight the disease.

Scientists have developed a plant they’re calling NuCitrus. It’s based on a protein called Arabidopsis NPR1 (AtNPR1). This new citrus shows strong tolerance to citrus greening, but not resistance.

Tolerance means plants can be infected by the pathogen but show no symptoms or only mild symptoms, which do not affect yield or quality. Resistance means that the plant can barely be infected.

NuCitrus plants not only tolerate disease attacks, they produce high-quality fruit, said Eric Triplett, a professor and chair of Microbiology and Cell Science at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). The added gene in NuCitrus produces a natural protein that is common in many foods such as broccoli and cauliflower.

Click here to find out more about NuCitrus.

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