Use of the polymerase chain reaction for detection of Fusarium graminearum in bulgur wheat

The Application of Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy to Identification of Potato Late Blight and Fusariosis

Fusarium and late blight (fungal diseases of cereals and potatoes) are among the main causes of crop loss worldwide. A key element of success in the fight against phytopathogens is the timely identification of infected plants and seeds. That is why the development of new methods for identifying phytopathogens is a priority for agriculture. The terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is a promising method for assessing the quality of materials. For the first time, we used THz-TDS for assessing the infection of seeds of cereals (oats, wheat and barley) with fusarium and potato tubers of different varieties (Nadezhda and Meteor) with late blight. We evaluated the refractive index, absorption coefficient and complex dielectric permittivity in healthy and infected plants. The presence of phytopathogens on seeds was confirmed by microscopy and PCR. It is shown, that Late blight significantly affected all the studied spectral characteristics. The nature of the changes depended on the variety of the analyzed plants and the localization of the analyzed tissue relative to the focus of infection. Fusarium also significantly affected all the studied spectral characteristics. It was found that THz-TDS method allows you to clearly establish the presence or absence of a phytopathogens, in the case of late blight, to assess the degree and depth of damage to plant tissues.

Design of a diagnostic system based on molecular markers derived from the ascomycetes pan-genome analysis: The case of Fusarium dieback disease

A key factor to take actions against phytosanitary problems is the accurate and rapid detection of the causal agent. Here, we develop a molecular diagnostics system based on comparative genomics to easily identify fusariosis and specific pathogenic species as the Fusarium kuroshium, the symbiont of the ambrosia beetle Euwallaceae kuroshio Gomez and Hulcr which is responsible for Fusarium dieback disease in San Diego CA, USA. We performed a pan-genome analysis using sixty-three ascomycetes fungi species including phytopathogens and fungi associated with the ambrosia beetles. Pan-genome analysis revealed that 2,631 orthologue genes are only shared by Fusarium spp., and on average 3,941 (SD ± 1,418.6) are species-specific genes. These genes were used for PCR primer design and tested on DNA isolated from i) different strains of ascomycete species, ii) artificially infected avocado stems and iii) plant tissue of field-collected samples presumably infected. Our results let us propose a useful set of primers to either identify any species from Fusarium genus or, in a specific manner, species such as F. kuroshium, F. oxysporum, and F. graminearum. The results suggest that the molecular strategy employed in this study can be expanded to design primers against different types of pathogens responsible for provoking critical plant diseases.