From the UCR News Article by Jules Bernstein:

"Scientists are closer to gaining the upper hand on a disease that has wiped out citrus orchards across the globe. New models of the bacterium linked to the disease reveal control methods that were previously unavailable.

Metabolic models of organisms are like road maps of cities. 

“They show you all the biological processes, and how they work together,” said UC Riverside microbiology professor James Borneman. “They also show you which molecular pathways, if blocked, will kill the organism.” 

In this case, researchers created the first models of the bacterium associated with Huanglongbing or HLB, also known as citrus greening disease. The team’s work is described in a new paper published in Nature's npj Systems Biology and Applications.

The remainder of the article can be found at the UCR News Site here.