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Who Said That?

"Citrus has incestuous genes – nothing is pure."

-- Fred Gmitter, a UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences faculty member

That orange you’re enjoying may have been grown in Florida, but its deepest ancestral roots stretch back more than 5 million years, all the way to two wild citrus species from Southeast Asia.

University of Florida scientists led an international research team that analyzed the genome sequences of 10 diverse citrus varieties for the first time.

Their findings, published online Sunday by the journal Nature Biotechnology, could help the citrus industry find and deploy genes for resistance to citrus greening, a bacterial infection devastating crops in North America.

Read more at UF News.