Project description:Citrus greening or huanglongbing (HLB) is a devastating disease of citrus. HLB is associated with the phloem-limited fastidious prokaryotic alpha-proteobacterium Candidatus Liberibacter spp. In this report, we used sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) leaf tissue infected with 'Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus' and compared this with healthy controls. Investigation of the host response was examined with citrus microarray hybridization based on 30,171 sets expressed sequence tag sequences from several citrus species and hybrids. The microarray analysis indicated that HLB infection significantly affected expression of 624 genes whose encoded proteins were categorized according to function. The categories included genes associated with sugar metabolism, plant defense, phytohormone, and cell wall metabolism, as well as 14 other gene categories.
