ABSTRACT Northern corn leaf blight, one of the most devastating diseases of maize ( Zea mays ), is caused by Exserohilum turcicum . This pathogen is widely distributed and can be found in maize fields across most regions of the world. The association of pathogens with seeds is considered a serious threat to the establishment of a field since seeds are considered an important reservoir of pathogen survival and spread. Rapid detection and quantification of seed‐borne pathogens prevent their introduction into production fields. This study validated specific primers and established a cPCR/qPCR protocol for routine detection of E. turcicum in maize seeds. The seeds were placed in contact with the fungal colony for different periods of time: 36, 72, 108 and 144 h. Subsequently, the inoculated seeds were mixed with healthy seeds to achieve incidence levels of 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, 10% and 100% in samples of 400 maize seeds. The primer set amplified a product of 170 bp from E. turcicum and did not amplify any DNA of other fungi. Both techniques efficiently detected the fungus in the seeds. The highest level of sensitivity was an incidence of 0.5% in 36 h of exposing the seeds to the fungal colony using cPCR and qPCR techniques. This corresponds to 0.0000147 ng/μL using the qPCR technique. Therefore, the primer pair was effective in the cPCR and qPCR protocol for detecting E. turcicum in maize seeds, and it can be used for routine seed health analysis.
Guimarães et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: