Janardan Khadka , Yasuo Kawamura and Mitsuru Okuda

DOI

ABSTRACT

Huanglongbing (HLB) commonly known as citrus greening caused by Candidatus Liberibacter is a major destructive disease of citrus. As farmers are encouraged to use grafted saplings due to root-rot and foot-rot problems, infected scion used for grafted sapling production can be initial source of HLB infection. Established citrus orchards show various symptoms similar to HLB infection, and thus identifying HLB is difficult merely based on physiological disorder and nutrient deficiencies. Therefore, it is necessary to develop efficient, quick and simple diagnostic method for HLB. A scratch method, which is efficient, quick and simple diagnostic, was tested with newly developed LAMP method, which is more sensitive to HLB than conventional PCR. The study revealed that about 74% results from scratch method agreed with the results from LAMP. Moreover, the scratch method that required small effort and simple equipments proved to be reliable and its possibility to use for HLB diagnosis in field condition.