Seed Health Testing: Doing Things Right
Since seeds can be a route for pathogen introduction, they are routinely inspected and tested to prevent pest outbreaks and introduction into new territories. The need for high throughput, short lead times, and cost reduction has played an important role in the development and application of techniq...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The American Phytopathological Society
2023-06-01
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| Series: | PhytoFrontiers |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PHYTOFR-03-22-0029-FI |
| _version_ | 1827095640945983488 |
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| author | Gerrit A. Hiddink Roland Willmann Joyce H. C. Woudenberg Rose Souza-Richards |
| author_facet | Gerrit A. Hiddink Roland Willmann Joyce H. C. Woudenberg Rose Souza-Richards |
| author_sort | Gerrit A. Hiddink |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Since seeds can be a route for pathogen introduction, they are routinely inspected and tested to prevent pest outbreaks and introduction into new territories. The need for high throughput, short lead times, and cost reduction has played an important role in the development and application of techniques in seed health testing. Examples are molecular and serological techniques, such as ELISA and PCR assays, which are commonly called indirect tests. After signal detection in ELISA or PCR assay a seed lot is a suspect lot that requires further investigation for a final conclusion about the health status of the seed lot, since these tests do not provide any information about pathogen viability or pathogenicity. The seed industry uses them as a prescreen to identify healthy seed lots and in combination with classical methods, commonly called direct tests, to confirm viability of the target pathogen and demonstrate its pathogenicity. However, outside industry, indirect tests are increasingly used to make a final decision on the health status of a seed lot. This has led to a growing number of seed lots being rejected when the risk of introducing a pathogen to importing countries may have been negligible. We propose that investments continue to be made in the development of high-throughput prescreening detection methods like HTS and PCR assays, but together with direct tests that enable accurate assessment of the risks involved when target pathogens are detected using indirect tests. Close collaboration between molecular scientists and classical phytopathologists is essential. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T06:30:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-03539836cc61427490bb04f2b768e8f2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2690-5442 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-20T07:03:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | The American Phytopathological Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PhytoFrontiers |
| spelling | doaj.art-03539836cc61427490bb04f2b768e8f22024-10-01T12:35:47ZengThe American Phytopathological SocietyPhytoFrontiers2690-54422023-06-0131717410.1094/PHYTOFR-03-22-0029-FISeed Health Testing: Doing Things RightGerrit A. Hiddink0Roland Willmann1Joyce H. C. Woudenberg2Rose Souza-Richards3Seed Technology Research, ENZA Zaden Seed Operations BV, Enkhuizen, Noord-Holland, 1602DB, The NetherlandsOperations Technology, BASF, Nunhem, Limburg, 6083AB, The NetherlandsSeed Health, International Seed Federation, Nyon, Vaud, 1260, SwitzerlandSeed Health, International Seed Federation, Nyon, Vaud, 1260, SwitzerlandSince seeds can be a route for pathogen introduction, they are routinely inspected and tested to prevent pest outbreaks and introduction into new territories. The need for high throughput, short lead times, and cost reduction has played an important role in the development and application of techniques in seed health testing. Examples are molecular and serological techniques, such as ELISA and PCR assays, which are commonly called indirect tests. After signal detection in ELISA or PCR assay a seed lot is a suspect lot that requires further investigation for a final conclusion about the health status of the seed lot, since these tests do not provide any information about pathogen viability or pathogenicity. The seed industry uses them as a prescreen to identify healthy seed lots and in combination with classical methods, commonly called direct tests, to confirm viability of the target pathogen and demonstrate its pathogenicity. However, outside industry, indirect tests are increasingly used to make a final decision on the health status of a seed lot. This has led to a growing number of seed lots being rejected when the risk of introducing a pathogen to importing countries may have been negligible. We propose that investments continue to be made in the development of high-throughput prescreening detection methods like HTS and PCR assays, but together with direct tests that enable accurate assessment of the risks involved when target pathogens are detected using indirect tests. Close collaboration between molecular scientists and classical phytopathologists is essential. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PHYTOFR-03-22-0029-FIbiological relevancedirect testindirect testseed movement |
| spellingShingle | Gerrit A. Hiddink Roland Willmann Joyce H. C. Woudenberg Rose Souza-Richards Seed Health Testing: Doing Things Right PhytoFrontiers biological relevance direct test indirect test seed movement |
| title | Seed Health Testing: Doing Things Right |
| title_full | Seed Health Testing: Doing Things Right |
| title_fullStr | Seed Health Testing: Doing Things Right |
| title_full_unstemmed | Seed Health Testing: Doing Things Right |
| title_short | Seed Health Testing: Doing Things Right |
| title_sort | seed health testing doing things right |
| topic | biological relevance direct test indirect test seed movement |
| url | https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PHYTOFR-03-22-0029-FI |
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