The following is an edited excerpt.
Recent coverage in the national news media is reporting the very real possibility of the end of orange juice, due to citrus greening, an incurable plant disease that’s ravaging the Florida citrus industry.
But biotechnology has overcome that so-called incurable disease in a way traditional plant breeding cannot, according to Dr. Bill McCutchen, executive associate director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research.
By moving genetic material from spinach to citrus, Dr. Erik Mirkov, an AgriLife Research scientist in South Texas, has developed a citrus tree resistant to citrus greening, McCutchen said.
Read the original excerpt in its entirety here: Expert: Transgenics could head off ‘the end of orange juice’
