A new method for detecting dry root rot disease of chickpea that causes significant loss of crop yield, has been developed by researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad in their recent study.
Chickpea, also known as Bengal gram accounts for about 45% of total pulses produced in India. India is the largest producer of chickpea with an annual production of 8 million tons, accounting for 70% of total world production.
The dry root rot disease is an emerging disease of chickpea that is often misdiagnosed as wilt, collar rot, or black root rot because all these diseases have symptoms such as loss of green pigment and eventual plant collapse. With rising global temperatures, the disease is becoming more prevalent in agricultural areas. Therefore it is important to timely detect dry root rot disease in the crop to manage the disease efficiently.
The conventional PCR-based method of detecting dry root rot disease is lab intensive, as it requires specialized and expensive machines, and is time-consuming. The new method is cheaper as it does not require an expensive thermal cycling machine. Also, it uses non-mutagenic and eco-friendly reagents, which is safe for the environment.
With this new technique, the disease infection can be judged as positive with the naked eye by seeing a change in color. “ (The new) detection technique can be employed in the diagnosis of disease in field level even also in remote areas where the laboratories are not well equipped”, say scientists. The new test uses 10 femtograms of DNA from the infected plant, which is put in a small tube and kept at 63 degree Celsius for 1 hour. If the color of the reagents in the tube changes from yellow to orange, the disease in the plant is confirmed.
They have validated the new test in 94 samples from various sites across India including Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, and Jharkhand and published the results in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’.
“In future, (the new test) kit will be very useful for monitoring the disease complex in fields, further helpful in developing the timely management strategies”, say scientists.
Reference: Scientific Reports 7: 42737.
Vigyan Prasar- Indian Science News and Features Service
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