PubMed · 2026-07-01
Trunk-injected oxytetracycline suppresses the bacteria driving citrus greening disease and improves fruit yield in infected trees, but causes hidden functional disruption in the root-zone microbiome concentrated in rare organisms responsible for nutrient cycling - without changing overall microbial diversity or generating detectable antibiotic resistance shifts.
OTC trunk injection reduced citrus greening pathogen abundance in leaves and improved fruit yield and juice quality in infected sweet orange trees without altering overall microbial alpha diversity.
Belowground compartments (fibrous roots and rhizosphere) showed consistent functional reductions in carbon-, nitrogen-, and phosphorus-cycling microbial pathways, driven by rare low-abundance taxa rather than dominant community shifts.
Resistome profiles showed no detectable increase in antibiotic resistance genes in response to OTC treatment; resistance patterns were strongly compartment-dependent rather than treatment-driven.
