Forecasting of Airborne Conidia Quantities and Potential Insect Associations of Cryphonectria parasitica, the Causal Agent of Chestnut Blight, in England.

ABSTRACT: Sweet chestnut, an Asiatic tree introduced in many parts of Europe including the United Kingdom, is planted for nut production, timber, and amenity. Its major threat is the disease called blight, caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, which infects through wounds by airborne spores. Field trapping using sticky rods rotating traps was performed in an infected area in Devon (between May 2021 and April 2023). An improved dual hydrolysis Taqman probes real-time PCR was used. The number of spores was calculated by comparing the cycle threshold to the Ct of standards with known amounts of conidia or known target fragment copies cloned into a plasmid. Weekly spore counts were in the range of around 60 to approximately 8.5 × 10³, with fluctuations of peaks (mainly in late

SUBMITTER: Romon-Ochoa P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10971521 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature