10.3389/fpls.2024.1330846

Citrus production faces numerous environmental challenges including the devastating huanglongbing (HLB) disease. HLB, also known as citrus greening, affects health, growth and fruit quality of Citrus plants (Wang, 2019). Citrus crops have a long history of cultivation as grafted trees on selected rootstock cultivars that can improve tree performance and provide some degree of resistance to HLB (Shokrollah et al., 2011; Bowman and Albrecht, 2020; Bowman et al., 2021). Recently, several transgenic approaches have made significant progress in combating HLB. However, public acceptance of genetically modified (GM) crops is very low, and many consumers prefer to eat GM-free food (Lucht, 2015). In this article, we explore the potential of different approaches to combat HLB by grafting non-transgenic scions on transgenic and non-transgenic rootstocks.