They create technology that detects diseases in blueberries
In the last 10 years, Chile has positioned itself as the second largest producer of blueberries worldwide, with more than 15.000 hectares cultivated and profits of more than 600 million dollars, according to data from the Committee of Blueberries. However, during the last season, gray rot or botrytis, caused losses of more than 85 million dollars for export, being by far the biggest negative impact in the industry. But an innovative technology promises to reduce and decrease the cost of detecting diseases in blueberries.
"We don't want the farmer to have to send their samples to the laboratory, we want to bring the laboratory closer to the farmers", says plant biotechnologist Andrea Donoso, director of DiagnoChrome, a project she runs at the Biotechnology Center of the University of Concepción (UdeC), with funds from the FIA Young Innovators 2015 call.
"We identified that one of the keys in the export of blueberries was to have a quick and low-cost tool to detect the disease caused by the Botrytis cinerea fungus in crops", explains Donoso. "This is due to the economic importance that this fruit has in the region and the country, where the main losses are caused by this pathogen." Donoso adds that with this technology, «Any person, without having advanced knowledge in phytopathology or molecular biology, will be able to make a quick diagnosis that will not take more than an hour. To date, there are very few techniques that can be directly applied in the field, or if there are, they are very expensive.
Agricultural innovation
«DiagnoChrome, was born as an idea to detect phytopathogens within the framework of the Bioeconomy area at the CB-UdeC» says Dr. Sofía Valenzuela, researcher and deputy director of the Biotechnology Center, who also provides academic support to the project with Dr. Ernesto Moya, from the Faculty of Agronomy UdeC.
Dr. Valenzuela, highlights the strong impetus of CB-UdeC to technology-based entrepreneurship and the search for initiatives with impact on the local economy. «The idea of applying molecular biology tools for the detection of phytopathogens has been carried out for many years in different molecular biology laboratories in Chile and the world. The novelty of this kit is that it will allow phytopathogens to be detected early in the field, quickly, easily and economically. As CB-UdeC we are aiming to bring technologies to the market, which has forced us to think differently, be innovative, creating new products that have an impact on the region and the country.".
For his part, Ernesto Moya, who has also worked on the creation of products and applications to control agricultural diseases, points to the impact that this new diagnostic tool could have.
«This can be a good tool for making decisions. The climate effect, with very dry springs and very rainy springs from one season to the next, has meant that traditional management programs have to look for new tools to make decisions and control diseases from a different perspective. "This technology goes along those lines, in how you can predict if a fungicide application is necessary, having confirmation whether or not the pathogen is present in the environment.".
Finally, Donoso also confirms the positive impact of this innovation and clarifies that they have already been able to detect minimal concentrations of the pathogen's DNA, "which demonstrates that the method we generated can be as sensitive as the current diagnostic systems available on the market".
“However, this is just one model we are working on to validate the technology. In the future we hope to have a broad platform that includes several of the most important fungi or bacteria for national agriculture, both in blueberries and other crops of interest.", concludes Donoso.
The proposal presented considers the development of a diagnostic kit for the fungus B. cinerea in blueberry crops, which can be applied directly in the field, without the need for the farmer to transport samples to a diagnostic laboratory and without the need for personnel. specialized in molecular biology or phytopathology, where a color change will indicate the presence of DNA of the pathogen, being faster, easier to interpret and cheaper compared to the technologies currently available in the market.
Source: SimFRUIT according to UdeC Press Release
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