Barcoding plant pests in Europe
In the EU alone there are nearly 300 quarantine organisms for which protective measures need to be taken. To accurately identify plant pathogens and pests, specialised diagnostic tools are required. Recently, DNA barcoding has emerged as an efficient way of marking organisms. The method uses a short piece of DNA, specific to a particular species, as a molecular DNA barcode. The aim of the EU-funded QBOL project was to generate such DNA-specific barcodes for quarantine organisms as a means of maintaining plant health. To this end, the consortium obtained gene sequences of species on the lists of the relevant EU directive and the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO). Researchers created lists of quarantine organisms as well as other species that may pose a future threat to European plants. Based on these lists, they sourced genetic information for relevant fungi, insects, bacteria, viruses, nematodes and phytoplasmas (a type of bacterial parasite). For each group, QBOL tested several DNA barcoding regions and selected the most reliable. Scientists also tested a number of different methods to extract DNA and chose the best one. This information, along with the chosen DNA barcodes and supporting taxonomic information, was incorporated into a publically accessible database. Furthermore, diagnostic and bioinformatics tools were developed to enable the correct identification of quarantine organisms based on DNA barcode sequences. Once established, the database was linked to the most-used online gene database, GenBank, as well as several other online resources. The functioning database was then refined based on general use and user feedback.
Keywords
DNA barcoding, plant pathogens, quarantine organisms, diagnostic tools, plant health
