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Smell the disease - Developing rapid, high-throughput and non-destructive screening methods for early detection of alien invasive forest pathogens and pests featuring next-generation technologies

XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022

Year of publication 2022

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 1p.

Author Nordström, I., Sherwood, P., Bohman, B., et al.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Document

Synopsis (short abstract) Global forests are increasingly threatened by alien invasive pathogens and pests. The magnitude of this threat is expected to further increase in the future, due to the warmer climate and more extensive global transports and trade of plants. Pests and pathogens are often introduced to new areas by trade with ornamental plants as intermediate hosts, and there is a great need to modernize the tools for detection of alien species in imported plants and in monitoring of those that are already established in our forests. To achieve this goal, research in forest pathology is focused on combining recent technological advances in robotics, next generation sequencing, and mass spectroscopic methods with knowledge about the specific metabolic responses in the pests and pathogens and the trees that they infest. Gas Chromatography (GC) Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) adsorbed on Solid Phase Micro-Extraction (SPME) fibers is one promising method with potential for high-throughput detection of larger plant shipments. By the establishment of a library of chemical fingerprints characterizing specific pests and pathogens, one could non-destructively scan a large number of plants in ports or nurseries to eliminate presence of disease. The species-specific combination of VOCs can be utilized to prevent introduction of harmful pests and pathogens to new markets. One pathogen considered as a quarantine species and a serious threat on-the-horizon for coniferous forests is Pine Pitch Canker (PPC), a fungal pathogen affecting a variety of pine species with devastating economical and biological consequences, especially if it were to be established in a country like Sweden where about 38% of the standing forest volume consist of pine. Pathogens like this one are already introduced in several European countries, and need to be monitored and identified early to prevent further forest damage – a challenge that Forest pathologists have accepted. Keywords: Climate change, Sustainable forest management, Research, Monitoring and data collection, Deforestation and forest degradation ID: 3499048

Statutory body / Meeting title World Forestry Congress (WFC)

Language English

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