| Summary: | Ganoderma boninense is a fungal pathogen that causes basal stem rot (BSR) disease in oil palm. Being a serious disease
problem to the oil palm industry, monitoring and detecting the pathogen is of the utmost importance to reduce disease spread
and facilitate effective management strategies. Because the traditional culture-based assay is time-consuming, labor-intensive,
and required special skills in mycology, plant pathologists are turning to more accurate, sensitive, and fast methods such as
molecular techniques. In this study, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were developed to detect pathogenic Ganoderma
species causing BSR disease in oil palm using a primer designed based on the ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS)
region. The effectiveness of conventional and real-time PCR assays was analyzed compared to the traditional isolation-based
assay. For artificially inoculated oil palm plantlets, consistent detection of G. boninense was observed. Real-time PCR assay has
shown to be more sensitive and rapid in detecting G. boninense in field samples and could potentially serve as a validation tool
to other detection techniques for the implementation of effective disease control measures.
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