Abstract
Human activities significantly contribute to worldwide spread of phytopathological adversities. Pathogen-related food losses are today responsible for a reduction in quantity and quality of yield and decrease value and financial returns. As a result, “early detection” in combination with “fast, accurate, and cheap” diagnostics have also become the new mantra in plant pathology, especially for emerging diseases or challenging pathogens that spread thanks to asymptomatic individuals with subtle initial symptoms but are then difficult to face. Furthermore, in a globalized market sensitive to epidemics, innovative tools suitable for field-use represent the new frontier with respect to diagnostic laboratories, ensuring that the instruments and techniques used are suitable for the operational contexts. In this framework, portable systems and interconnection with Internet of Things (IoT) play a pivotal role. Here we review innovative diagnostic methods based on nanotechnologies and new perspectives concerning information and communication technology (ICT) in agriculture, resulting in an improvement in agricultural and rural development and in the ability to revolutionize the concept of “preventive actions”, making the difference in fighting against phytopathogens, all over the world.
Highlights
Published: 18 March 2021The search for effective diagnostic tools for plant pathogen detection and management has to face new challenges in an era characterized by climate change and intensified global trades, and recent epidemic events underline its urgency
Despite their simplicity and low cost, poor reliability and applicability are general problems connected to these techniques, especially in the case of pathogens that are non-cultivable in vitro or difficult to observe under a microscope
The analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) represents an indirect method for plant pathogen detection, since these chemicals are produced by plants, and released as defense mechanism against pathogen attack [53] (Figure 4a)
Summary
The search for effective diagnostic tools for plant pathogen detection and management has to face new challenges in an era characterized by climate change and intensified global trades, and recent epidemic events underline its urgency. Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics tools are required for their ability to perform analysis and provide prompt responses outside the laboratory, in order to achieve early diagnosis, match surveillance purposes, and prevent large production losses This is a well-known concept in the human health context [24] with specific criteria described by the World. First approaches to prevent plant diseases spreading and implementing quarantine regulations include a visual interpretation of the symptoms and the study of the morphological characteristics of the pathogens through their growth on specific culture media (if cultivable), or through observation with microscopy techniques (if not cultivable in vitro) [30] Despite their simplicity and low cost, poor reliability and applicability are general problems connected to these techniques, especially in the case of pathogens that are non-cultivable in vitro or difficult to observe under a microscope. Considering the new regulatory requirements and the increasingly stringent and frequent analysis, innovative and rapid techniques, such as POC, must be investigated and developed to carry out a strategic control of the quarantine pathogens and their spreading
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