Testing for TR4: Wageningen develops rapid in-field banana fungus detector

24 Oct 2019 --- New technology to detect the presence of Tropical Race 4 (TR4) is direly needed to prevent spreading of the Fusarium strain that causes the potentially devastating Panama disease (Fusarium wilt) in bananas which has recently tested positive in Colombia. The Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification assay (LAMP) test developed by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is touted as being an extremely quick and practical innovation which helps identify the disease before it can cause further havoc.

“The main benefit of the new LAMP test is that it has a handy size and can be used in the field. It is no longer necessary to employ a laboratory to analyse the samples. In principle, any company active in banana farming can purchase the device, train its employees and deploy it immediately,” Gert Kema, Professor in Phytopathology at WUR says.

The new technique could be highly useful to companies without a laboratory and for government institutions. “Now they only need limited means to test whether any banana plants are affected by TR4. They have the result within an hour. Fast tests are indispensable to adequately establish quarantine measures for any pandemic. This is a key development for the industry,” Kema explains.

“The training sessions we set up with the authorities in Colombia and growers in the Philippines have shown that the test is easy to perform,” Kema continues. “You take a piece of tissue, isolate some DNA via a fast and easy process, and place this in the device. The device itself is the size of a shoe box so can easily be taken into the field. This test is especially crucial to map an outbreak in areas where the Fusarium fungus has just appeared.”

The same WUR research group developed the first molecular test for TR4 in 2010. Commercialized by ClearDetections, the test is now being used around the world and has become an essential tool in detecting and quarantining TR4. In the years that followed, the group developed a DNA database of Fusarium strains that cause Panama disease. The LAMP test uses a new unique DNA fragment of the TR4 genome derived from this database, so the two methods strengthen each other.

Edited by Anni Schleicher