Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Development of onsite field diagnostics to sugarcane grassy shoot disease causing Candidatus Phytoplasma sacchari by RPA-LFD method (Recombinase polymerase amplification combined lateral flow dipstick) to ensure healthy seed chain and sustain sugarcane production |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Nithya Kadirvel, sugarcane Breeding Institute, Tamil Nadu |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2026 |
Contact info : | knithyapath@gmail.com |
Details
Executive Summary : | sugarcane is a major field crop grown under tropical and subtropical regions in the country in an area of 4.8 M Ha. It is a vegetatively propagated crop cultivated through cuttings (setts) and the disease causing pathogens are mainly spread through these planting materials in the field. Other than fungal and bacterial diseases, the viral and phytoplasma diseases such as yellow leaf, mosaic, leaf fleck and sugarcane grassy shoot affect the crop in all the growth stages and cause yield losses in both plant and ratoon crops. Amongst, the sugarcane grassy shoot is the most destructive one caused by Candidatus Phytoplasma sacchari. systemic accumulation of these disease causing pathogens causes loss of varietal vigour which leads to varietal degeneration and such severe cases, more than 50% loss to cane production in plant crop and much more in ratoon crops were recorded. since there are no chemicals/biotic agents/resistant varieties to manage the diseases, they have to be managed only through clean seed derived through tissue culture or heat treatment. Hence, efficient diagnostics have to be employed to detect latent infection in the planting materials that do not exhibit any symptoms to certify them for planting. In this regard, ICAR-sBI has developed many sugarcane disease diagnostics in India viz. fluorescent microscopy, DAs/ DAC-ELIsA, TBIA, PCR, RT-PCR, multiplex PCR, q-PCR, IC-RT-PCR and RT-LAMP for the important pathogens; ELIsA and nested PCR for the sCGs phytoplasma. However, the present diagnostics lengthen the detection time and not applicable under field conditions. Hence, there is a need to develop a quick, on site, sensitive and reliable diagnostic kits for effective prevention of the disease spread apart from the laboratory based diagnostic methods. The recently developed recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) combined lateral flow dip stick (RPA-LFD) diagnostic technology could serve as an ideal tool for the rapid diagnosis of grassy shoot disease causing Ca. phytoplasma sacharri in India. |
Co-PI: | Dr. susheel Kumar sharma, ICAR- Research Complex For North Eastern Region (ICAR-NEH) Manipur Centre, Imphal, manipur -795004, Dr. Rasappa Viswanathan, sugarcane Breeding Institute, Tamil Nadu-641007 |
Total Budget (INR): | 30,20,328 |
Organizations involved