Abstract
Yellow rust spores currently blight commercial and domestic wheat production in areas of East Africa such as Ethiopia. Yellow rust is a hazard to crops which appears asymptomatic for a time, but inevitably causes significant losses in yield once symptoms of infection manifest themselves to the point where they can be readily observed by the naked eye. Regionally recurrent losses of up to 5% are common and reach as high as 25% in rare cases. Historically, spore sampling has been undertaken by large, cumbersome devices that require heavy power supplies and significant expertise to reliably operate. Moreover, tools for the design and development of such devices are currently limited. This paper, therefore, proposes design and testing processes to develop a spore sampling device that is compact, passive (requires no power to operate), and can better direct spores onto a biomimetic sensor platform enhancing the capture and detection of pathogens. This represents a novel design context for fluidic devices. Performance of the device has been simulated using Lagrangian particle tracking embedded into computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, demonstrating significant improvements across a range of spore Stokes numbers. Experimental validation of numerical simulations was performed using wind tunnel testing and practical performance such as weathervaning was demonstrated. Results show that that the developed sampler is capable of enhancing the probability of yellow rust spores interacting with an internal sensor by a factor of between 20 and 25; demonstrating the effectiveness of the developed design.
Highlights
Wheat yellow rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici), known as wheat stripe rust, is a fungal micro-organism which blights wheat crops worldwide
The sampler main function is to act as an air multiplier concentrating the airborne particles through the sampler contraction
This study considered the design and testing processes for a passive spore sampler device to enhance the the designed sampler device is to the ability abilityto tocapture captureairborne airbornespore sporepathogens
Summary
Wheat yellow rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici), known as wheat stripe rust, is a fungal micro-organism which blights wheat crops worldwide. Tritici), known as wheat stripe rust, is a fungal micro-organism which blights wheat crops worldwide. It is so named due to the yellow striations it forms along venations on leaf blades, which resemble the surface texture and discolouration attributed to oxidation in ferrous metals. Though the spores primarily target leaf blades, leaf sheathes and spikes can be affected in conditions of high humidity and rainfall, or during epidemics. Symptoms include stunted development and weakening of affected crops, reduced numbers of spikes, shriveled grains occurring in fewer numbers per spike than on healthy plants, and losses in grain mass [1]. Temperatures during the time of winter wheat emergence and the coldest period of the year are crucial for the development of epidemics
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
