Novel Rapid Gene-Screening Platform Helps To Protect Agricultural Crops From Diseases, Plant Pathogens

The latest study discovered a way to protect crops from plant pathogens and diseases. Researchers, from Australia's national science agency CSIRO, said that a novel rapid gene-screening platform can help mitigate the impact of diseases, impacting crop productivity.

Protection of crops is crucial to avoid the devasting impacts on food security. Diseases, parasitic worms, and pathogens pose a significant threat to agricultural productivity exacerbated by extreme weather events and climate change.

In the recent NWN report, researchers explained that changing climate conditions and humidity can allow the transmission of infectious diseases and parasitic worms that could affect animals and ecosystems. The research report was published in Ecology Letters.

As a result, the molecular plant pathology breakthrough helps address the alarming issues of diseases that harm the productivity of plants and crops. The research findings were published in Nature Plants journal.

Novel Rapid Gene-Screening Platform Importance

According to researchers, pathogen virulence has been a significant problem for plant disease resistance. The study employed a screening method to track the pathogen virulence.

The report showed that plant pathogens are an alarming problem that could disrupt global food security, leading to widespread losses. To better understand the plant pathogen and offer new insights into disease resistance, the researchers unveiled a novel rapid-gene screening.

"Our advanced screening technology represents a technological leap forward in our ability to study the processes that give plants enduring resistance to disease, enabling new genetic strategies to safeguard crop production and disease management in Australia and abroad," CSIRO's Dr. Peter Dodds, the project's co-lead, said, as quoted in a CISRO report

The screening strategy will help identify potential new avirulence (Avr) effector genes in pathogens. The breakthrough is a significant contribution to molecular plant pathology.

"This method enables high-throughput screening of complex genetic libraries in a plant's cellular environment at an unprecedented speed. This enhances the ability to select more disease-resistant crops and aids efforts in pathogen surveillance," Dr. Dodds added, as quoted in the same report.

According to the report, the new technology addressing the problems of plant pathogens is a biosecurity measure amidst the growing concerns of climate change. Rising temperatures can spread infectious diseases, threatening plants, crops, humans, and animals.

How Does Climate Change Impact Agriculture?

Climate change can affect the weather patterns, bringing extreme drought, strong storms, wildfires and heatwaves. Prolonged drought and dry conditions are devastating to agricultural supplies and productivity due to lack of water or rainfall. Farmers can likely suffer from harvest decline.

In addition, frequent flooding can destroy crops and livestock, causing prices to surge.

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