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technology
FEATURE |

Science

Propelling

that's
Ag

Future

into the
T

TECHNOLOGIES THAT CONSERVE WATER,

MONITOR WEATHER, AND AID IN THE
CITRUS
FIGHT AGAINST GREENING
by CHERYL ROGERS

Dr. Killiny’s research involves making molecular modifications to a plant that would TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS BEEN USED to help humans defeat disease

attract the psyllids (thus drawing them away from citrus groves, especially if these plants is now being used to cripple the Asian psyllid, which is the pest spreading the dreaded
could border the farms), and silence the pests’ genes upon feeding on the plant. In his citrus greening disease. In the greenhouse, Dr. Nabil Killiny, an assistant professor of

controlled experiments, the pests experience genetic malformations that either cripple Entomology for the University of Florida (UF), has been able to silence genes that enable
them or decrease their ability to fly or feed on other trees. Hence, in theory, it would the psyllids to fly and eat, which causes them to die faster.

decrease the number of sprays needed to protect the citrus groves— and over time— de-

crease the population of the psyllids and the associated spread of citrus greening disease. Using the same therapy that won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2006,
“I can’t say when it’s going to be available,” Dr. Killiny points out, but he hopes to have a Dr. Killiny has found a way to debilitate and destroy the psyllid in a strictly controlled

suitable plant in a year.
environment. He then viewed the insects with Computerized Tomography (CT) scans
to verify the malformations. At present, he is working to develop a border plant that will

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protect commercial citrus, which has an annual economic impact of $9 billion in Florida.

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