Plant pathogenicity and associated/related detection systems. A review

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for the development of various tools for diagnosis and control of plant infections. The early diagnosis of plant disease serves as a vital element to improve crop productivity and meet demands of the ever-growing world population. The traditional methods of plant disease detection are time consuming, laborious and require 3-5 days to estimate the disease incidence. In this review, we focus on the advances in the detection techniques, mainly the miniaturized systems that has developed in the last decade. The analytical techniques for plant pathogen detection have been classified as direct and indirect detection methods. The direct methods involving laboratory techniques such as polymerase chain reaction, enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assays, and immunofluorescence and their recent advances have been discussed. Similarly, indirect methods which rely on sensing the plant stress indicators to detect plant diseases have been categorized and reviewed. In the last decade, various detection platforms with high sensitivity and selectivity have been developed and commercialized into handheld devices and products for on-field plant disease detection. This review focusses on the transition from the gold standard techniques to the advanced on-field biosensors to detect plant diseases with higher accuracy, cost-effective and making timely diagnosis possible. A growing trend for pathogen detection based on biosensors has been highlighted and further categorized into electrochemical, optical, and mass-based sensors. These innovative advancements in plant pathogen detection systems help to make the agricultural sector more safe, reliable, and sustainable for the ever-growing population.

Keywords: Agriculture; Biosensors; Detection; Phytopathogen.