huanglongbing

Eventually Halbert got to the bottom of her list to the most devastating disease of citrus plants in the world—huanglongbing, Chinese for “yellow dragon disease.”

Huanglongbing, which is also called HLB or citrus greening, had been spreading slowly through India, China, Indonesia and South Africa.…

Researchers began injecting antibiotics into tree trunks and looking for resistant genes to splice into orange trees. But huanglongbing continues to spread.