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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » National Germplasm Resources Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #340530
Title: Implementation of next generation sequencing for high-throughput pathogen detection in sugarcane introductions grown in quarantine

Author
item MALAPI-WIGHT, MARTHA - Animal And Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
item KUMAR, LETICIA - Animal And Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
item Mollov, Dimitre
item FOSTER, JOSEPH - Animal And Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

Submitted to: Sugar Journal
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/15/2017
Publication Date: 6/1/2017
Citation: Malapi-Wight, M., Kumar, L., Mollov, D.S., Foster, J. 2017. Implementation of next generation sequencing for high-throughput pathogen detection in sugarcane introductions grown in quarantine. Sugar Journal. 80:22-23.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The USDA-APHIS Plant Germplasm Quarantine Program (PGQP) safeguards U.S. agriculture and natural resources against the entry, establishment, and spread of economically and environmentally significant pathogens, and facilitates the safe international movement of propagative plant parts. PGQP is the only federal plant quarantine program that imports and tests sugarcane accessions used in research, variety development, germplasm curation, and commercial production across the United States. Next generation sequencing (NGS) is a powerful technology being adopted worldwide as the next improved diagnostic tool for the identification of animal and plant diseases. The goal of PGQP is to establish NGS as a routine diagnostic tool to detect fungi, bacteria, viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas in each imported sugarcane accession. This technology has the capacity to detect, in a faster turnaround time, all pathogens identified by laboratory diagnostic tests used routinely by PGQP. In addition, it can identify novel and/or unknown pathogens of significant quarantine importance not currently targeted by our lab-based techniques. In this talk, we will present PGQP efforts in preventing the introduction of potentially devastating pathogens, and recent advances in implementing NGS into the Sugarcane Quarantine Program. The implementation of this new diagnostic tool will decrease the risk of introducing pathogens that have the potential to threaten the U.S. sugarcane industry.