Pathogen and Fungicide Resistance Diagnosis
Plant diseases are caused by a broad range of pathogens like fungi, bacteria and virus. For prevention of yield losses and to enhance crop health, clean and pathogen-free seeds and transplants are crucial. In addition, for field crops the detection and identification of possible soil-born diseases is of utmost importance. During growth of the plant, pathogen infestations have to be determined as early as possible. So far, disease detection mostly relies on visible symptoms. However, the plants could be infected without to develop symptoms, i.e. the disease is latent. The high sensitivity of the biomolecular, PCR-based methods of IDENTXX enable the diagnosis of a disease already at a very early stage of pathogenesis, even before symptoms appear. If the identification takes place too late, it will be difficult to avoid subsequent damages or the use of pesticides.
Knowledge about the incidence and species of a pathogen in soil, seed or plant provides important criteria for crop management and crop protection measurements; the damage can be prevented and the use of pesticides can be reduced and optimised. IDENTXX supports agricultural associations and public authorities, as well as consultants in their decision making process and contributes to an optimised development of plant protection products. With its expertise in precise and fast pathogen and resistance detection, IDENTXX offers vital information for seed certification and efficacy tests of plant protection products.
Furthermore, our services include the assessment of agricultural experimental fields regarding soil-borne pathogens and thereby increase the quality and significance of the results of field trials.
The specific identification systems allow IDENTXX for the discrimination between closely related organisms, mutated pathogens and the detection of fungicide resistance. Hence, our customers will receive the maximum information about pathogens or resistance mechanisms at an early stage of plant colonization or evolution.
