Image dataset: UAV images and ground data of one 'Bingo' mandarin and two 'Valencia' orange rootstock trials conducted in Florida.

The data are aerial images and ground tree measurement data of 3 citrus rootstock trials. Developing new citrus rootstock varieties requires field trials to test to identify selections with improved horticultural performance. A bud from a scion variety is grafted onto the rootstock and grown in a nursery until the grafted plant is ready to be planted in the field, which is in about one year.

Image dataset: Optimizing growth of nonembryogenic citrus tissue cultures using response surface methodology.

The data are images of Valencia sweet orange nonembryogenic tissue grown on different culture media that varied in the composition of the mineral nutrients from three experiments. Experiment 1 was a 5-factor d-optimal response surface design of five groupings of the component salts that make up Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal salt medium. Experiment 2 was a 3-factor d-optimal response surface design of extended ranges of factors 1, 2, and 3 from Experiment 1.

Plant-Derived, Nodule-Specific Cysteine-Rich Peptides as a Novel Source of Biopesticides for Controlling Citrus Greening Disease.

Nodule-specific cysteine-rich (NCR) peptides, encoded in the genome of the Mediterranean legume (barrelclover), are known to regulate plant-microbe interactions. A subset of computationally derived 20-mer peptide fragments from 182 NCR peptides was synthesized to identify those with activity against the unculturable vascular pathogen associated with citrus greening disease, ' Liberibacter asiaticus' (Las). Grounded in a design of experiments framework, we evaluated the peptides in a screening pipeline involving three distinct assays: a bacterial culture assay with , a Las-infected excised citrus leaf assay, and an assay to evaluate effects on bacterial acquisition by the nymphal stage of hemipteran vector A subset of the 20-mer NCR peptide fragments inhibits both Las growth in citrus leaves and Las acquisition by .

Improving citrus bud grafting efficiency.

Commercial citrus trees are composed of a scion grafted onto a rootstock. Because grafting is one of the most expensive methods of plant propagation, grafting efficiency is of large practical importance. The purpose of this study was to improve citrus bud-grafting efficiency.

Direct Infusion Device for Molecule Delivery in Plants.

Testing the function of therapeutic compounds in plants is an important component of agricultural research. Foliar and soil-drench methods are routine but have drawbacks, including variable uptake and the environmental breakdown of tested molecules. Trunk injection of trees is well-established, but most methods for this require expensive, proprietary equipment.

Delivery of CRISPR-Cas12a Ribonucleoprotein Complex for Genome Editing in an Embryogenic Citrus Cell Line.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) technology is a powerful genome editing tool. Recently developed CRISPR-Cas12a system confers several advantages over CRISPR-Cas9, making it ideal for use in plant genome editing and crop improvement. While traditional transformation methods based on plasmid delivery pose concerns associated with transgene integration and off-target effects, CRISPR-Cas12a delivered as ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) can effectively alleviate these potential issues.

A Perspective on Current Therapeutic Molecule Screening Methods Against ' Liberibacter asiaticus', the Presumed Causative Agent of Citrus Huanglongbing.

Huanglongbing (HLB), referred to as citrus greening disease, is a bacterial disease impacting citrus production worldwide and is fatal to young trees and mature trees of certain varieties. In some areas, the disease is devastating the citrus industry. A successful solution to HLB will be measured in economics: citrus growers need treatments that improve tree health, fruit production, and most importantly, economic yield.

Highly Efficient Genome Editing in Plant Protoplasts by Ribonucleoprotein Delivery of CRISPR-Cas12a Nucleases.

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) mediated genome editing is a powerful approach for crop improvement. Traditional transformation methods based on plasmid delivery pose concerns associated with transgene integration and off-target effects. CRISPR delivered as ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) can prevent exogenous DNA integration, minimize off-target effects, and reduce cellular toxicity.

Fractional Factorial Designs: An Underutilized Tool for Rapid In Vitro System Development.

Anther and microspore culture for producing haploid plants are very complex systems and include general effects where the specific effects must be identified and optimized to develop culture systems capable of producing the large numbers of haploids required by breeding programs. These general effects include genotype, physiological state of the source plant, age of the anthers and microspores, preculture treatments, culture conditions, and culture media. Design of experiments (DoE) is an experimental approach specifically designed to identify and optimize the multiple factors that make up complex systems, and is ideally suited for developing in vitro systems to produce haploids.

Response surface methodology reveals proportionality effects of plant species in conservation plantings on occurrence of generalist predatory arthropods.

Multivariate geometric designs for mixture experiments and response surface methodology (RSM) were tested as a means of optimizing plant mixtures to support generalist predatory arthropods. The mixture design included 14 treatment groups, each comprised of six planters and having a proportion of 0.00, 0.

Author Correction: Multidimensional approach to formulating a specialized diet for northern corn rootworm larvae.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Development of an improved and accessible diet for western corn rootworm larvae using response surface modeling.

The western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, is an important pest of maize (Zea mays L.). Published WCR diets contain corn root powder, which is not available for purchase, thereby limiting the practical use of diets containing this ingredient.

Multidimensional approach to formulating a specialized diet for northern corn rootworm larvae.

The northern corn rootworm (NCR), Diabrotica barberi Smith & Lawrence, is a major pest of maize (Zea mays L.). This pest has developed resistance to insecticides and adapted to crop rotation and may already be in the early stages of adaptation to toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

Efficiency of Biodegradable and pH-Responsive Polysuccinimide Nanoparticles (PSI-NPs) as Smart Nanodelivery Systems in Grapefruit: In Vitro Cellular Investigation.

Biodegradable pH-responsive polysuccinimide nanoparticles (PSI-NPs) are synthesized for directly delivering agrochemicals to plant phloem to improve their efficacy. The PSI-NPs have an average size of 20.6 nm with negative charge on the surface.

Use of Mixture Designs to Investigate Contribution of Minor Sex Pheromone Components to Trap Catch of the Carpenterworm Moth, Chilecomadia valdiviana.

Field experiments were carried out to study responses of male moths of the carpenterworm, Chilecomadia valdiviana (Lepidoptera: Cossidae), a pest of tree and fruit crops in Chile, to five compounds previously identified from the pheromone glands of females. Previously, attraction of males to the major component, (7Z,10Z)-7,10-hexadecadienal, was clearly demonstrated while the role of the minor components was uncertain due to the use of an experimental design that left large portions of the design space unexplored. We used mixture designs to study the potential contributions to trap catch of the four minor pheromone components produced by C.

Diet improvement for western corn rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) larvae.

The western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, is the most serious insect pest of corn (Zea mays L.) in the United States and parts of Europe, and arguably one of the world's most expensive pests to control. Several diet formulations are currently used by industry and public researchers to evaluate WCR larvae in diet-toxicity bioassays.

Expression of Bacillus thuringiensis cytolytic toxin (Cyt2Ca1) in citrus roots to control Diaprepes abbreviatus larvae.

Diaprepes abbreviatus (L.) is an important pest of citrus in the USA. Currently, no effective management strategies of D.

ARS-Media for Excel: A Spreadsheet Tool for Calculating Media Recipes Based on Ion-Specific Constraints.

ARS-Media for Excel is an ion solution calculator that uses "Microsoft Excel" to generate recipes of salts for complex ion mixtures specified by the user. Generating salt combinations (recipes) that result in pre-specified target ion values is a linear programming problem. Excel's Solver add-on solves the linear programming equation to generate a recipe.

Mixture-amount design and response surface modeling to assess the effects of flavonoids and phenolic acids on developmental performance of Anastrepha ludens.

Host plant resistance to insect attack and expansion of insect pests to novel hosts may to be modulated by phenolic compounds in host plants. Many studies have evaluated the role of phenolics in host plant resistance and the effect of phenolics on herbivore performance, but few studies have tested the joint effect of several compounds. Here, we used mixture-amount experimental design and response surface modeling to study the effects of a variety of phenolic compounds on the development and survival of Mexican fruit fly (Anastrepha ludens [Loew]), a notorious polyphagous pest of fruit crops that is likely to expand its distribution range under climate change scenarios.

A dark incubation period is important for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of mature internode explants of sweet orange, grapefruit, citron, and a citrange rootstock.

Background: Citrus has an extended juvenile phase and trees can take 2-20 years to transition to the adult reproductive phase and produce fruit. For citrus variety development this substantially prolongs the time before adult traits, such as fruit yield and quality, can be evaluated. Methods to transform tissue from mature citrus trees would shorten the evaluation period via the direct production of adult phase transgenic citrus trees.

In vitro shoot growth of Brugmansia × candida Pers.

The objective of this study was to improve the growth of in vitro shoot cultures of Brugmansia × candida 'Creamsickle'. Several mineral nutrient experiments were conducted to determine the effect of NH4 (+), NO3 (-), K(+), FeSO4/EDTA, ZnSO4, MnSO4, and CuSO4 on quality, leaf width and length, size and weight of shoot mass, and shoot number. The experiment to determine the levels of NH4 (+), NO3 (-), and K(+), was conducted as a 2-component NH4 (+): K(+) mixture crossed by [NO3 (-)] and resulted in an experimental design free of ion confounding and capable of separating the effects of proportion and concentration.

Artificial diet optimized to produce normative adults of Diaprepes abbreviatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

The root weevil Diaprepes abbreviatus L. has been continuously reared since 1992 on an artificial diet (F1675) first reported in 1982. The weight of weevils reared on F1675 was more than twice as great as field-collected individuals.

Sensory imbalance as mechanism of orientation disruption in the leafminer Phyllocnistis citrella: elucidation by multivariate geometric designs and response surface models.

Experimental designs developed to address mixtures are suited ideally to many areas of experimental biology, including pheromone blend studies, because such designs address the confounding of proportionality and concentration intrinsic to factorial and one-factor-at-a-time designs. Geometric multivariate designs coupled with response surface modeling allowed us to identify optimal blends of a two-component pheromone for attraction and trap disruption of the leafminer moth, Phyllocnistis citrella, a major pest in citrus growing areas around the world. Field trials confirmed that the natural 3:1 blend of (Z,Z,E)-7,11,13-hexadecatrienal:(Z,Z)-7,11-hexadecadienal was most effective as an attractant for male moths.