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Citrus dwarfing viroid reduces canopy volume by affecting shoot apical growth of navel orange trees grown on trifoliate orange rootstock
Abstract
Citrus dwarfing viroid (CDVd) infection of navel orange trees (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osb.) on ‘Rich 16-6’ trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) rootstock has been previously reported to reduce canopy volume by approximately 50%. We demonstrated that the reduction in tree size of CDVd-infected citrus resulted from a >20% reduction in the apical growth of individual shoots within the tree canopy. We also demonstrated that the reduced canopy volume of the CDVd-infected trees is a long lasting phenotype comparable to that of ‘Flying Dragon’ rootstock, which is known to reduce citrus tree size.