This project (Hall-15-016) is an extension of a project that recently came to a close (Hall-502). The driving force for this project is the need to evaluate citrus transformed to express proteins that might mitigate HLB, which requires citrus be inoculated with CLas. USDA-ARS-USHRL, Fort Pierce Florida is producing thousands of scion or rootstock plants transformed to express peptides that might mitigate HLB. The more rapidly this germplasm can be evaluated, the sooner we will be able to identify transgenic strategies for controlling HLB. The purpose of this project is to support a high-throughput facility to evaluate transgenic citrus for HLB-resistance. This screening program supports citrus breeding and transformation efforts by Drs. Stover and Bowman. Briefly, individual plants to be inoculated are caged with infected psyllids for two weeks, and then housed for six months in a greenhouse with an open infestation of infected psyllids. Plants are then moved into a psyllid-free greenhouse and evaluated for growth, HLB-symptoms and Las titer, and finally the plants are transplanted to the field where evaluations of resistance continue. CRDF funds for the inoculation program cover the costs associated with establishing and maintaining colonies of infected psyllids; equipment such as insect cages; PCR supplies for assays on psyllid and plant samples from infected colonies; and two GS-7 USDA technicians. A career technician is assigned ~50% to the program. USDA provides for the program two small air-conditioned greenhouses, two walk-in chambers, and a large conventional greenhouse. Currently 18 individual colonies of infected psyllids are maintained. Some of the individual colonies are maintained on CLas-infected lemon plants while others are maintained on CLas-infected Citron plants. Update: Two technicians funded by the grant were hired during August and have been trained to establish and maintain colonies of infected psyllids, conduct qPCR assays on plant and psyllid samples, and run the inoculations. As of December 31, 2015, a total of 7,853 plants have passed through inoculation process. A total of 154,595 psyllids from colonies of CLas-infected ACP have been used in no-choice inoculations. Research concluded during September 2015 showed that seedling citrus with flush is significantly more prone to contracting the HLB pathogen than seedling citrus without flush: Hall, D. G., U. Albrecht, and K. D. Bowman. 2016. Transmission rates of �Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus� by Asian citrus psyllid are enhanced by the presence and developmental stage of citrus flush. J. Econ. Entomol. (in press)