Citrus canker provoked by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri is a bacterial disease causing severe losses in
all citrus-producing areas around the world. Xanthomonas infection is considered as an endemic disease
in Northeast and Northwest Argentina, affecting as much as 10% of commercial citrus plantations. There is
not known natural resistance neither in orange varieties nor in rootstocks used for grafting of commercial
cultivars. To introduce resistance to this disease, plants of Pineapple sweet orange were transformed
with a genetic construct allowing constitutive accumulation of dermaseptin. In comparison with nontransformed
plants, transgenic plants showed symptom reduction levels of up to 50% in in planta assays
performed under controlled conditions.