A formidable adversary to landscapes across Minnesota, oak wilt fungus (Bretziella fagacearum) has spread with alarming speed. With no cure yet available, oak wilt’s reach extends across counties, causing an estimated $60 million in damages over the past decade. The urgency for early detection and intervention against this fungal disease has never been more critical.
Amidst this turmoil, innovative Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Pests and Plants Center (MITPPC)-funded research projects have honed in on slowing this destructive force to a crawl. Through revolutionary rapid testing and diagnostics in the field, drone surveillance, and refining disease outbreak containment methods, University of Minnesota experts are making breakthroughs in oak wilt management.
A LAMP assay brings rapid accuracy
Abdennour Abbas, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering in the College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences, is heading up a groundbreaking project to develop novel diagnostic tools for rapid and early oak wilt detection. Traditional oak wilt testing approaches use polymerase chain reaction, or PCR testing. PCR results can be slow, laborious, and limited by their reliance on time-consuming lab procedures. Abbas and his team recognized these limitations and worked toward a solution that transcends the constraints of conventional methods.
The team turned to Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification, or LAMP testing. Scientists use LAMP to amplify specific DNA sequences. "The detection method is similar to PCR but is a lot faster,” says Vinni Thekkudan Novi, a PhD candidate in the Biosensors and Bionanotechnology Lab who helped develop the test. Thekkudan Novi says she collaborated with Hamada Aboubkr, PhD, a former post-doctoral research associate who contributed to the project. “It allows [users to create] pathogen DNA copies at a constant temperature, making it much faster than conventional PCR that cycles at different temperatures," she says.
Due to its simplicity, speed, and accuracy, LAMP is often employed in various fields, including medical diagnostics, environmental testing, and pathogen detection. Abbas’ team, however, is the first to apply LAMP to oak wilt detection.
Source: umn.edu
Photo Credit: minnesota-corn-growers-association
Categories: Minnesota, Crops