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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » Horticultural Crops Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #239642
Title: Polymerase Chain Reaction for Detection of Systemic Plant Pathogens

Author
item Hadidi, Ahmed
item OLMOS, A - Valencian Institute For Agricultural Research
item PASQUINI, G - Cra-Plant Pathology Research Institute
item BARBA, M - Cra-Plant Pathology Research Institute
item Martin, Robert
item SHAMLOUL, A.M. - Fraunhofer Usa

Submitted to: Virus and Viruslike Diseases of Pome and Stone Fruit
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/13/2009
Publication Date: 7/26/2011
Citation: Hadidi, A.F., Olmos, A., Pasquini, G., Barba, M., Martin, R.R., Shamloul, A. 2011. Polymerase chain reaction for detection of systemic plant pathogens. In: Hadidi, A., Barba, M., Candresse, T., and Jelkmann, W., editors. Virus and Viruslike Diseases of Pome and Stone Fruit. St. Paul, MN, APS Press. 341-359.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: This chapter outlines the advances and application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) since its development in 1984 and its enhancements and applications to detection of viruses, viroids and phytoplasma in pome and stone fruits. PCR is probably the most rapidly and widely adopted technology ever in the field of biology and goes far beyond pathogen detection. Many biotech companies have developed and marketed kits for extracting nucleic acids from plants and doing the PCR reactions. Pome and stone fruits have high concentrations of inhibitors and require extra care in the nucleic extraction protocols compared to herbaceous plants. The PCR technology has also been applied to the detection of plant viruses in vectors which has been very important in studies on virus epidemiology studies. The development of real-time PCR provides a tool to quantify specific nucleic acids and monitor pathogen titers over time. A critical component in developing virus detection assays that is often missing is the validation of tests to ensure a test will detect all strains of a virus, function in many different laboratories, is both specific and able to correctly identify healthy plants, and is sensitive or able to identify all infected plants.