Abstract
Turfgrass is a multibillion-dollar industry severely affected by plant pathogens including fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes. Many of the diseases in turfgrass have similar signs and symptoms, making it difficult to diagnose the specific problem pathogen. Incorrect diagnosis leads to the delay of treatment and excessive use of chemicals. To effectively control these diseases, it is important to have rapid and accurate detection systems in the early stages of infection that harbor relatively low pathogen populations. There are many methods for diagnosing pathogens on turfgrass. Traditional methods include symptoms, morphology, and microscopy identification. These have been followed by nucleic acid detection and onsite detection techniques. Many of these methods allow for rapid diagnosis, some even within the field without much expertise. There are several methods that have great potential, such as high-throughput sequencing and remote sensing. Utilization of these techniques for disease diagnosis allows for faster and accurate disease diagnosis and a reduction in damage and cost of control. Understanding of each of these techniques can allow researchers to select which method is best suited for their pathogen of interest. The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the turfgrass diagnostics efforts used and highlight prospects for disease detection.
Highlights
Turfgrass is a multibillion-dollar industry that encompasses lawns, parks, sports fields, and golf courses with over 62 million acres in the US alone [1]
Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a PCR that can be adapted to allow for several different tests to occur at Multiplex PCR is a PCR that can be adapted to allow for several different tests to occur at one one time in one reaction [31]. This is accomplished using species-specific primers that have similar time in one reaction [31]. This is accomplished using species-specific primers that have similar temperature requirements and produce different sized bands visualized with gel electrophoresis temperature requirements and produce different sized bands visualized with gel electrophoresis (Figure 5B)
Each different band size is read with the ladder to determine tested for several pathogens simultaneously
Summary
Turfgrass is a multibillion-dollar industry that encompasses lawns, parks, sports fields, and golf courses with over 62 million acres in the US alone [1]. Turfgrass has many positive environmental impacts, including reducing temperatures in a given area [4], energy use reduction [5,6], potential phytoremediation uses [7,8,9], and erosion control [10,11]. It has been shown that greenscapes such as turf can reduce stress and increase cognitive capabilities [12,13]. While there are some concerns about potential negatives of turfgrass growth, including water use and chemical use, the positive impacts outweigh the negatives and these disadvantages can be reduced with breeding drought and disease tolerant varieties [14]
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