The main objectives of this program are the development of enhanced disease resistance in existing fruit tree cultivars and rootstocks, extending the shelf life of tropical fruit and developing improved propagation systems through the use of biotechnology. Implicit in this description is the development of efficient regeneration pathways, e.g., somatic embryogenesis, organogenesis, protoplast culture, haploid embryogenesis, etc., involving elite selections of tropical fruit species. In conjunction with somatic cell genetic approaches, i.e., in vitro selection, mutation induction, protoplast fusion and genetic transformation, specific breeding objectives are targeted using existing tropical fruit cultivars. This research program is also working towards using these same techniques in the conservation of endangered plant species.

This research program focuses on investigating the effects of environmental and biotic factors on physiology of tropical and subtropical plants. Studies are aimed at defining effects of environmental factors on plant productivity to provide a basis for improving agricultural production and sustainability and for enhancing compatibility between agricultural and natural ecosystems. The specific research focus is on leaf gas exchange, plant water relations, photosynthate partitioning, and in cooperation with other researchers, physiology of soil-plant, plant-pathogen, and plant-insect interactions.

The goals of this program are to develop innovative horticultural techniques which increase crop yields and which either broaden or shift the flowering season, and to develop post harvest shipping strategies that will preserve the quality of shipped commodities for long periods, prolong high quality shelf life, kill insects of quarantine concern and prevent decay for local commodities shipped overseas and across the nation. Developing horticultural techniques for the aforementioned purposes includes investigating external and internal factors governing flower and fruitlet abscission and elucidating the environmental, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms involved in floral induction of various commercially important tropical fruit crops.

This program's main areas of research include tree training (carambola, Annona sp., mamey sapote), tree size control (avocado, lime, mango, carambola, lychee, longan, Annona sp., mamey sapote), fertilizer practices and plant nutrition (carambola, lychee, avocado, lime), crop manipulation for off-season production (carambola, guava, Annona sp.), rootstock evaluation (Annona sp., Citrus sp.), improving fruit size (longan), and carambola, guava, papaya, and lychee cultivar evaluation.