Project Number: 1920-22000-037-01
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Aug 15, 2005
End Date: Sep 30, 2007

Objective:
The objective of the collaborative research with China is to use locally infected citrus trees as sources of inoculum for cultivation of the etiological agent of HLB; Liberobacter asiaticum.

Approach:
The student will use available PCR primers along with additional sets developed at Ft. Detrick to identify high tittered tissues from which to obtain inoculum for testing various growth factors for cultivating the organism. Isolations of strains of HLB will be made from different areas around Chongqing. Dr. Schaad will visit annually to collect citrus seedlings and Periwinkle plants infected with HLB and meet with Prof. Wang and the student to review progress and discuss new approaches. The initial samples will be used for screening the specificity of additional primer set(s) to be developed at Ft. Detrick. The infected plants at Ft. Detrick will be used to provide a source of inoculum for confirming results obtained by the student.