PROJECT DETAILS
Pathogen identification
Plant pathogenic nematodes alone cause an estimated $100,000,000,000 of damage per year.
ClearDetections has developed an extensive catalog of Real-Time PCR assays for the detection and identification of these tiny worms. Farmers can benefit from knowing which pathogens are lurking in their soil, waiting for the arrival of a susceptible host plant: our food crops, flowers or trees.
Community analysis
Microbes that live in soil can be very beneficial.
These are the disease-suppressors, decomposers and nutrient recyclers. They can affect yields by regulating pathogen infestations and by improving the flow of nutrients. DNA extracted from soil can be sequenced to reveal the biological composition of a field or plantation.
The problem:
Current methods for soil DNA extractions are limited to very small volumes of starting material.
A single gram of soil taken from a field is not representative. This means that rare but important populations can be easily missed. Many small samples would be needed to properly analyze a field or plantation, which greatly increases the cost of analysis.
The solution:
Soil DNA extraction methods must be scaled up.
ClearDetections are working on methods to extract DNA from much larger soil volumes, up to 500 g per sample. We are working hard to create a universal method that is suitable for extracting DNA from all plant-pathogens simultaneously, including microbes and insects.
Interested? Feel free to contact us.
Pathogen identification
Agriculture is currently being revolutionized by the availability of cheap genetic tools.
Microbes that live in soil can be very destructive.
These are the plant-pathogenic nematodes, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. They can lower yields, destroy plants, or in extreme cases, create devastating epidemics that lead to loss of livelihood and famine.
Plant pathogenic nematodes alone cause an estimated $100,000,000,000 of damage per year.
ClearDetections has developed an extensive catalog of Real-Time PCR assays for the detection and identification of these tiny worms. Farmers can benefit from knowing which pathogens are lurking in their soil, waiting for the arrival of a susceptible host plant: our food crops, flowers or trees.
Community analysis
Microbes that live in soil can be very beneficial.
These are the disease-suppressors, decomposers and nutrient recyclers. They can affect yields by regulating pathogen infestations and by improving the flow of nutrients. DNA extracted from soil can be sequenced to reveal the biological composition of a field or plantation.
The problem:
Current methods for soil DNA extractions are limited to very small volumes of starting material.
A single gram of soil taken from a field is not representative. This means that rare but important populations can be easily missed. Many small samples would be needed to properly analyze a field or plantation, which greatly increases the cost of analysis.
The solution:
Soil DNA extraction methods must be scaled up.
ClearDetections are working on methods to extract DNA from much larger soil volumes, up to 500 g per sample. We are working hard to create a universal method that is suitable for extracting DNA from all plant-pathogens simultaneously, including microbes and insects.
Interested? Feel free to contact us.