LOS ANGELES TIMES - Attention home gardeners: Our beloved citrus trees may yet be saved from the incurable huanglongbing, a.k.a. HLB or citrus greening disease, thanks to natural immunities found in a rare and flavorful relative known as the Australian finger lime.
After five years of study, a team of UC Riverside researchers led by Hailing Jin, professor of plant genetics, identified which gene in the finger lime causes that immunity and extracted it to create an antibiotic that has killed the disease in young trees raised in laboratories and controlled environment greenhouses.