Citrus Pathology Lab

Early May (May 3, 2025), Gainesville, FL: Dr. Ozgur Batuman gave a seminar during UF/IFAS Plant Pathology's inaugural Plant Breeders Workshop, w hich brought together faculty and staff members from various departments to foster collaboration across disciplines. Dr. Ozgur Batuman gave a seminar during UF/IFAS Plant Pathology's inaugural Plant Breeders Workshop  June 8-10, Bonita Springs , FL: Dr. Ozgur Batuman, Dr. Sanju Kunwar, and Lauren Fessler Mathews attended the 38th An

Dr. Ozgur Batuman and master's student Lauren Fessler Mathews recently attended the Florida Phytopathological Society Meeting, held from May 6–8, 2025, at the UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center in Fort Pierce, FL. The event brought together plant pathologists from across the state, providing an opportunity to connect and learn about the latest research on a wide range of plant disease topics. Lauren presented a poster titled "Can Ascorbic Acid Improve the Stab

Lauren was recently awarded the F.A. Wood Memorial Travel Award. This award is named after the late plant pathologist Dr. Francis Aloysius "Al" Wood who was a pioneer in the epidemiology of plant diseases and who previously served as the Dean of Research for UF IFAS. Lauren Fessler Mathews: Graduate Student at SWFREC in Dr. Batuman’s Plant Pathology Lab Each year, award recipients are chosen based on the benefits of their research to the scientific community and society, the

On Thursday, April 10, 2025, Dr. Ozgur Batuman presented at Citrus Field Day at the SWFREC, highlighting ongoing research from his citrus pathology program at the University of Florida. His presentation focused on the benefits of rotating different pesticides for managing Huanglongbing (HLB) and citrus canker. Field data demonstrated that such rotation strategies can effectively reduce reliance on oxytetracycline (OTC) and copper-based treatments, helping to delay the develop

As part of Graduate Student Appreciation Week, Lauren Fessler Mathews presented at Southwest Florida Research and Education Center's (SWFREC) Inaugural 3-Minute Thesis Competition on Monday, April 7th. Her presentation titled "Bridging the Gap for Florida Citrus" underlined the importance of maintaining and enhancing the efficacy of trunk injections for management of HLB in Florida. Lauren Fessler Mathews presenting “Bridging the Gap for Florida Citrus” during the inaugural 3

Our team is thrilled to be part of the 2025 Joint Meeting of the Caribbean and Southern Division happening from March 9–13, 2025 , at the Hilton Conference Center in Gainesville, Florida! 🎉 Today, March 11th , from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM , we invite you to check out our postdoc's exciting research poster in Salon B, Poster # 50 . 🧑‍🔬 Poster Title : Enhancing HLB Management with New Therapeutics for Florida Citrus 🍊 Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about cutting-edge solu

Dr. Ozgur Batuman, postdoc Dr. Kellee Britt-Ugartemendia, and master’s student Lauren Fessler recently attended the UF Department of Plant Pathology Biennial Research and Development Symposium on May 14-15, 2024, in Gainesville, Florida. Graduate students and postdoctoral scientists in the department had the opportunity to present their current research through oral or poster presentations and ranged over a variety of economically important plant pathosystems. The Batuman lab

Batuman Lab (Dr. Ozgur Batuman, Post-doc Kellee Britt-Ugartemendia, and Master’s Plant Pathology student Lauren Fessler) had the opportunity to attend the 7th IRCHLB Conference from March 26-30, 2024, in Riverside, California. Dr. Batuman gave an oral presentation on the automated trunk-injection research, a USDA-NIFA project, in collaboration with the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC) Precision Ag lab titled, “Needle-based, automated trunk injection sy

Dr. Batuman has been appointed to a prestigious National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) committee to provide guidance on a serious disease plaguing California’s important wine industry.

Batuman Lab members and SWFREC staff are hosting plant pathologists from throughout the State of Florida. For more information about the FPS and its biannual meeting in Immokalee, please visit this site: For more information about the FPS, please visit this site:

Citrus Industry Magazine Article Highlighted Dr. Batuman's January Grower Seminar (Published on JANUARY 13, 2023)

Dr. Batuman introduced a few pathogens, including Phytophthora and two exotic viruses (citrus leprosis virus and citrus yellow vein clearing virus) that cause diseases in citrus worldwide. More recently, one of the viruses has been found in dooryard citrus in California. Fortunately, we do not have them in Florida. However, getting familiar with their disease symptoms and vigilance can help avoid introducing these exotic pests to Florida. We should avoid having any additional

SWFREC IDEA (Inclusion – Diversity – Equity – Access) seminars consist of SWFREC people presenting about their home country. March 2022 was assigned to Dr. Batuman and Salih Yilmaz who made an interesting presentation about their home country, Turkey. The entire center was invited to attend and learned many fascinating things about Turkey's history, culture, food, and more.

Titled, “Scouting and Management of Citrus Diseases (HLB, Phytophtora, Leprosis)”, Dr. Batuman's presentation on January 12th discussed the ongoing issues and solutions to common problems Florida citrus growers have been dealing with.

Congratulations on the successful PhD defense and welcome as post-doctoral researcher! Kellee’s PhD Research was focuswed on the biological control of the Asian Citrus Psyllid, vector of the devastating Citrus Greening pathogen. During her graduate program, Kellee published two first-author papers “The Detection and Surveillance of Asian Citrus Psyllid (Diaphorinacitri)—Associated Viruses in Florida Citrus Groves” and “Partial Genome Sequence of a Novel Reo-Like Virus Detecte

Citrus pathology and Citrus physiology (Professor Ute Albrecht's) lab members participated in the harvesting and juicing of grapefruits from the Duncan trial for the analysis of _____

Southwest Florida WINK News visits Batuman Lab to report: “UF Researchers receive federal funding to fight citrus greening”. Dr. Batuman discusses projects that aim to combat the effects of citrus greening by creating an inter-stalk graft method using Fingerlimes, fruits known to have more resistance and peptides that work against severe disease development.

During the Fall of 2021, Salih Yilmaz became the Vice President of Plant Pathology Graduate Student Organization and the Treasurer of the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center Graduate Student Organization.

Mid-August 2021 marked the successful completion of Marissa Penquiney’s summer internship at the Citrus pathology lab. Marissa is going into her senior year at Ave Maria University, majoring in biology, and interested in pursuing a graduate degree in plant pathology. She was assisting Dr. Sanju Kunwar in developing assays for testing novel therapeutics against citrus canker and also learned molecular biology skills in plant pathogen diagnostics with Kseniya Chumachenko.

All members of the Batuman Lab and much of Dewdney lab (from Citrus Research and Education center in Lake Alfred, FL) participated in the week-long disease scouting and rating process. This collective effort covered thousands of trees and prepared the blueprint for pesticide trial tree selection

Dr. Ozgur Batuman, UF-IFAS. In this talk, Ozgur reminds growers to continue paying attention to other pathogens that can attack already HLB-weakened trees. Phytophthora or leprosis each can substantially reduce productivity of a citrus tree but when they are co-infecting, it can be fatal. Also, some control measures may not be effective anymore due to HLB-induced complications. To see the entire presentation, click on the PDF link below:

University of Florida Researchers study ways to combat citrus greening

UF/IFAS scientists find viruses that might help control insect that causes citrus greening

Automated System Would Deliver Chemicals to Help Ward off Citrus Greening