via Wikipedia
Plant diseases, especially those caused by fungal pathogens, jeopardize global crop biosecurity and preventing them requires rapid detection and identification of causal agents.
Traditional methods for crop disease diagnosis rely on the expertise of pathologists who can identify diseases by eye, but this approach comes with many limitations, including the reliance on physical appearance of disease symptoms.
Also of note, this traditional method does not allow for the rapid identification of unknown pathogens during an outbreak. This limitation was made obvious recently in Bangladesh, when wheat crops were devastated by an invasion of South American races of wheat blast fungus.
As wheat is one of the world’s most important crops, a group of Australia-based scientists wanted to address this limitation by developing a new method for analyzing pathogen DNA in wheat leaf samples. Using a portable DNA sequencer, they were able to achieve early-stage and broad-range detection of pathogens in wheat–and they were also able to characterize all organisms in the wheat and confirmed the presence of an unexpected diseases not previously diagnosed by pathologists.
According to the scientists behind this research, “A combination of on-site and centralized sequencing approaches would, in future, revolutionize management of agricultural biosecurity and reduce crop loss.” Additionally, these methods can be incorporated into routine field diseases monitoring and biosecurity monitoring at national borders to save time and money and prevent another devastating outbreak like the one seen in Bangladesh.
This research, discussed in the open access article “Pathogen Detection and Microbiome Analysis of Infected Wheat Using a Portable DNA Sequencer,” also explores the way this new strategy can identify diseases-inhibiting microbes for use in environmentally friendly control of diseases. This research was made available online in May 2019 ahead of final publication in the June issue of the fully open access Phytobiomes Journal.
Learn more: New DNA sequencer method achieves early-stage and broad-range detection of wheat diseases
The Latest on: Wheat diseases
via Google News
The Latest on: Wheat diseases
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India’s wheat production is heading for a record in the current crop season 2020 July-2021 June on rise in acreage and change in varietal mix aided by a favourable weather. “The crop is in good ...
- India set for record wheat output: Experton February 22, 2021 at 10:07 am
Production of the food grain is likely to touch 115 million tonnes compared with 107 million tonnes in the previous year, looking at the crop position in major growing states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya ...
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- How to get to grips with brown rust in wheaton February 15, 2021 at 11:53 pm
Changes to brown rust resistance ratings, the introduction of new fungicides and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns are all influencing the ...
- The keys to a major boost for hybrid wheat breedingon February 15, 2021 at 5:07 am
A new study, led by researchers from The University of Western Australia and scientists and expert plant breeders from Limagrain is set to revolutionize the future of wheat production, with three ...
- Wheat or millet: Which roti should you have?on February 15, 2021 at 12:42 am
Wheat is the most common grain containing gluten. When flour mixes with water, gluten proteins form a sticky dough. While it suits a lot of people, gluten can cause health issues for those with celiac ...
- Yellow rust battle in wheat crops set to get tougheron February 12, 2021 at 10:30 am
Wheat growers face a tougher battle against yellow rust this spring due to many races of the disease being suspected within crops and a key rust fungicide ...
- Gene stacking may help fight off wheat stem ruston February 11, 2021 at 2:08 pm
Researchers at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization are trying to improve wheat rust resistance by stacking five resistance ...
- WSU winter wheat breeder previews new varietieson February 11, 2021 at 10:00 am
Washington State University's winter wheat breeder Arron Carter recently provided a sneak peek at upcoming new varieties during a presentation for dryland farmers.
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