Abstract
Huanglongbing (HLB) is a devastating citrus disease that causes significant financial losses in the citrus industry. However, there is no cure by current control strategies. Damaged soils were observed in citrus orchards; root lesions and nematodes were observed in HLB-affected citrus tree roots. Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) makes a great contribution to pathogen control and has the potential to control HLB. Purpureocillium lilacinum (P. lilacinum) and Trichoderma harzianum (T. harzianum) can kill pathogenic organisms such as nematodes and Phytophthora spp. to protect roots. Restoration of the damaged soils and improvement of citrus root growth through the introduction of soil amendments and biocontrol agents (containing B. subtilis, P. lilacinum, and T. harzianum) may provide an efficient approach to controlling HLB. Results revealed that soil properties such as soil pH and organic matter content were improved. After three months of combination treatment of soil amendment and biocontrol agent through root drenches, the citrus grew new roots and its leaves changed from yellow to green. The percentage of HLB-positive citrus trees—Orah, Tangerine, and Navel Orange—decreased from 90 to 0%, 87.5% to 21.88%, and 81.25% to 0% over three years, respectively. Furthermore, the productivity of HLB-affected orchards was restored, and both production and quality saw significant improvement. These results suggested that combining soil remediation and biocontrol improved soil quality and protected citrus root growth, thus effectively controlling HLB.
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The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the farmer managers who let us into their citrus orchards and helped in the field. We also express our gratitude to Zhihua Liu, Yongbo Yang, Zhangbin Zhu, and Rangchun Cao for their contributions to this study.
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This project was financially supported by the government of Jianghua Yao Autonomous County and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51972302).
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YujH conceived and designed the experiments and supervised the project. YZ, YC, DongxZ, MJ, YW, and LY performed the experiments. YZ performed data analyses. YZ, YujH, and LW drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
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Zhang, Y., Chen, Y., Ma, J. et al. Controlling citrus Huanglongbing based on soil remediation and biocontrol. Eur J Plant Pathol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-024-02835-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-024-02835-y