"Communities Take Root" contest

"Communities Take Root" Contest

Edy's Fruit Bars and the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation are sponsoring a contest among communities across the country vying for your vote in order to win their own orchard!

You can vote one time each day until August 31st. 5 winners will be announced on the first of each month, from May 1st - Sept 1st.

Six Wisconsin locations are among those competing for your vote, and one of them is currently in 5th place nationwide - the brand new Bock Community Forest and Garden in Middleton, WI.

Citrus fruit pathogen genome sequenced

"Citrus greening" (also known as Huanglongbing, HLB, or yellow dragon disease) is a tree disease, caused by the bacteria Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus and Candidatus Liberibacter africanus. The bacterium is transmitted by psyllid insects.

Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus' genetic sequence has been saved to GenBank, an open access database sponsored by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Also of interest:

• Plant Pathology research guide
• "ARS scientists sequence citrus disease bacterium" (2/12/09)
  
• "Questions and answers: USDA’s federal order to prevent the spread of citrus greening and the Asian citrus psyllid" (July 2008)
• "Diversity of “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus” based on the omp gene sequence" (2005)
  
• "Ecology of the insect vectors of citrus systemic diseases and their control in Taiwan" (1998)
• "Report of a mission to Malaysia and Thailand (June 28 - July 9, 1990) on citrus greening disease"
• "Virus diseases of citrus" (1989)
• "Psyllids of America North of Mexico : (Psyllidae: Homoptera)" (1943)

[Image by Steve Webel. Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/webel/76665500]