Sudden Oak Death Disease Diagnosis to be Made Easy

Diagnosing diseases of trees has been very expensive, tedious, and unreliable in the past. But, by using the DNA sequence of the pathogen, scientists can easily device ways to identify sick trees. This technology is going to be a very important tool in the recent discovery of sudden oak death disease for the first time in Long Island, New York. The disease has infected trees throughout California and the Southwestern Oregon since mid 1990’s, and was already seen in an ornamental plant in Los Angeles. This rapid disease spread is quite alarming that the US Department of Agriculture issued a ban against the transfer of any of the 40 types of plants known to carry the disease. Fortunately, the genome of the pathogen that causes the disease has been sequenced two months ago. Scientists will use this sequence to develop more specific diagnostic tests for detecting sudden oak death and how it spreads. This will be a significant help to prevent the decline of the tree and ornamental plant industry in the US.

Similar technology was used in preventing the nasty and expensive soybean root rot disease. A California-based biotechnology company used the pathogen’s genome sequence so that scientists can analyze genes that are turned on and off during the infection of soybean.  

See details of the press release at: http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/08/19/oaktree.php

Details of the research can be downloaded at:http://nature.berkeley.edu/comtf/pdf/Monthly%20Reports/COMTF_Report_August_2007.pdf