The citrus greening disease (also called huanglongbing) has devastated the Florida citrus industry, and is now in CA and TX. Fruit from infected trees is safe to eat, but production is reduced so much that citrus may cease to be inexpensive and broadly available. If you are a citrus lover you should know that massive research efforts, including this project, are underway to keep citrus affordable and plentiful. See impact on US production..
News
Diaphorina citri stylet biogenesis animation is online
The manufacture of new stylets (stylet biogenesis) is an extremely complex process that has been detailed in the potato psyllid. The animation shows examples of key features of the potato psyllid's process that are present in Diaphorina citri, indicating that both are comparable.
Missed the webinar for new Diaphorina citri v2.0 genome release?
The slides are available on slideshare. The v2.0 reference assembly and official Gene Set (v2.0) can be downloaded from the FTP site. You can browse the genome using jbrowse and explore the gene pages.
Webinar for new Diaphorina citri v2.0 genome and Official gene set v2.0 release
The improved v2.0 reference assembly has 1906 contigs and a contig N50 of 759Kb. We are also releasing a new Official Gene Set (v2.0) with 20,967 genes. We will be announcing more details in a webinar on March 5, 2018 (12-1pm EST, 9-10am PST, 5-6pm GMT). No login is required to join the webinar. Please click here to connect at the meeting time.
New updates posted on Diaphorina citri genome and annotation pages
We have added details about the interim genome v1.91 and the new WebApollo system that is hosted at Boyce Thompson Institute. Links to the BioCyc metabolic pathway databases have also been added to the genome pages.
Our paper describing the Diaci v1.1 genome, MCOT transcriptome and Official gene set v1.0 is now available online. Please see the supplementary data for details of manual curation.
The Official Gene Set (OGS v1.0) reported in our paper is now available for blast analysis. This includes the automatically predicted genes from the last version of annotation (XP,XM) as well as 530 manually curated gene models.
The interim genome v1.9 for Asian citrus psyllid assembled from Pacbio data is now available on Jbrowse. The genome build is also available at the Ag Data Commons site. Please cite this resource if you publish any analysis based on this dataset.
The Cilia, Shatters, Mueller, Slupsky and Hunter labs presented multiple talks and posters at the IRCHLB meeting in Orlando in March 2017. Please see the agenda for more details.
Featured publications
Characterization and purification of proteins suitable for the production of antibodies against ‘Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus’ Liu et al. (2017) Protein Expression and Purification
Susceptibility of Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Liviidae) and Its Parasitoid Tamarixia radiata (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) to Entomopathogenic Fungi under Laboratory Conditions Ibarra-Cortés et al. (2017) Neotropical Entomology
Does the scion or rootstock of Citrus sp. affect the feeding and biology of Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae)? Rodrigues Alves et al. (2017) Arthropod-Plant Interactions
Rehabilitation of Huanglongbing-affected Citrus Trees Using Severe Pruning and Enhanced Foliar Nutritional Treatments Rouse et al. (2017) HortScience
Molecular mechanisms behind the accumulation of ATP and H2O2 in citrus plants in response to ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ infection Pitino et al. (2017) Horticulture Research
The influence of bacteria on multi-trophic interactions among plants, psyllids, and pathogen Tamborindeguy et al. (2017) Insect Science
Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus Encodes a Functional Salicylic Acid (SA) Hydroxylase That Degrades SA to Suppress Plant Defenses Li et al. (2017) APS Journals
LdtR is a master regulator of gene expression in Liberibacter asiaticus Pagliai et al. (2017) Microbial biotechnology
Metabolomic Response to Huanglongbing: Role of Carboxylic Compounds in Citrus sinensis Response to ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ and Its Vector, Diaphorina citri Killiny et al. (2017) Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
Research highlights
Diaphorina citri nymphs are resistant to morphological changes induced by "Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus" in midgut epithelial cells
Translation? The gut cells of the Asian citrus psyllid nymphs do not respond the same way to infection by the Huanglongbing bacterial pathogen as adult guts. This was unexpected.
Scientists found a surprising visual difference between how nymph and adult guts of the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) respond to infection by "Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus," the causative bacterial agent of Huanglongbing (HLB), or Citrus greening disease. More
Scientists found a surprising visual difference between how nymph and adult guts of the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) respond to infection by "Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus," the causative bacterial agent of Huanglongbing (HLB), or Citrus greening disease. More
Guts of Asian citrus psyllid adults change on a molecular level when feeding on plants infected with the citrus greening bacterium
Kruse and her colleagues were interested in how CLas interacts with the gut to cross into the blood and be transmitted, and if the presence of CLas causes changes in the cells of the gut. To find out, researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University began with hundreds of dissected guts from psyllids feeding on either healthy or CLas-infected citrus plants. More
Annotation Updates
C-Type Lectins
Report and protein sequences
C-Type Lectins(CTLs) are calcium dependent extracellular proteins involved in recognition of glycans. A total of 10 models were found and annotated. Refer to C-type lectin gene report for further details. The Basecamp page and FTP site contain the data sets and instructions for annotation.
Relish-like Proteins
Report and protein sequences
Relish-like proteins are transcription factors and are inlvolved in Imd pathway. The Basecamp page and FTP site contain the data sets and instructions for annotation.
Galactoside-Binding Lectins
Report and protein sequences
Galactoside-Binding Lectins (GALEs) or galectins bind to beta-galactoside sugars. GALEs are implicated in innate immunity as they might be involved in microbial recognition and/or phagocytosis. The Basecamp page and FTP site contain the data sets and instructions for annotation.
Events
Third Annual CitrusGreening Solutions meeting
The Third Annual CitrusGreening Solutions meeting will be held on Dec 10-12th,2017 at University of California, Davis campus in CA.
International Research Conference on Huanglongbing
The IRCHLB V meeting was held in Orlando, FL from March 15-17th, 2017. See here for more information. The Cilia, Mueller and Shatters labs were represented at the meeting.
International Plant and Animal Genome XXV meeting
Members from the Mueller lab presented a poster and gave a demonstration of the resources at Citrusgreening.org. Updates to the ACP genome were presented at the Arthropod genomics workshop. CitrusCyc metabolic pathway database was described at the Citrus Genome workshop.
Links
Agencies
Psyllid Research
Citrus Research
