Innovative tests for early detection of wheat diseases
Innovative tests for early detection of wheat diseases. Towards a new era in plant protection
Project title
Development of new molecular diagnostic tests allowing identification of key pathogenic fungi of common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) for application in targeted plant protection
Name of Beneficiary/Beneficiaries
Adam Kuzdraliński (University of Life Sciences in Lublin)
Name of programme
LIDER PROGRAMME
Competition
5th edition of the Lider Programme
Project value
PLN 1,110,625.00
Funding value
PLN 1,110,625.00
Project delivery period
1 January 2015 – 31 December 2019
Meet our team
View the results of our work
What problem is addressed by the project?
Early detection of plant diseases by applying DNA analysis methods may prevent environmental pollution with chemical plant protection products. Thanks to the methodology we are currently working on, farmers will no longer need to make guesses on what products they should use and in what doses.
The beginnings of the project are quite complex. The University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Professor Stolarska’s team to be more precise, accepted an order for testing plant protection products from their manufacturers. According to the guidelines, the tests were mainly based on the visual observations of plants. We evaluated the action of a given product by observation and analysis of what happens to a given plant growing on a specially prepared field. It is a widely used methodology based on international standards. Yet, as noted by Adam Kuzdraliński, PhD, it seemed prone to substantial inaccuracy right from the beginning. Humans make mistakes, and the results of observations provided to scientists by different persons sometimes vary.
The concept to apply, at a wide scale, molecular methods to detect crop pathogens came quite naturally. In fact, the method is analogous to the one applied to detect coronavirus in humans. Scientific literature presents examples of similar methods, but we applied the approach assuming more comprehensive action and significantly more accurate one. We decided to create a type of a panel of wheat diseases which are important from an economic point of view (laboratory works are normally devoted to one disease only).
Having diagnosed and marked a specific pathogen and disease, we can apply prevention and treatment procedure more precisely. High-sensitivity molecular methods provide additional details about the situation at hand, and are able to detect the presence of a given pathogen in a plant before any symptoms occur. Diseases which are detected at the plant DNA level constitute a real opportunity to begin a new era of plant protection.
Who uses the project results?
This new methodology may potentially be of major importance not only in Poland. The annual loss related to wheat pathogens is significant. At the same time, the popular plant protection products are applied several times during the vegetation season, and do not act selectively. They often produce “adverse effects” in the form of chemical contamination, picrotoxins, destruction of other micro-organisms, negative impact on ground waters, and negative effects on people and animals. The project outcomes can be used for developing the so-called smart agriculture whereby all decisions are made based on data. Information on the occurrence of micro-organisms which may eventually cause a disease may be crucial for plant protection planning. Importantly, they may prove extremely significant for biological plant protection which is primarily of a preventive character.
What was the greatest challenge during project implementation?
The greatest challenges in projects of this sort stem from the fact that biology is unpredictable. In the designed methods, there are so many factors that influence the result that it make take months to attain a certain outcome. That was the case here, with works on some pathogens lasting till the very end.
Our advice for other applicants
As regards advice to applicants and people planning to expand their businesses based on research, when going from science towards business, you should certainly have some knowledge about business and its governing principles.
Our project was developed at the University of Life Sciences and at Nexbio, a company set up by Adam Kuzdraliński, PhD, using European funds. Based on our experience, finding an investor familiar with the specificity of biotechnological research is very difficult. Funds or private investors, when approaching a start-up, tend to pay most attention to tables showing short-term results of a given business venture.
In this context, NCBR funding is of special significance, but all applicants should, nevertheless, be aware that the launch of research and its outcomes, even if promising, are the mere beginning on the way towards project commercialisation. Fortunately, the climate around start-ups and subsequent generations of innovators seems to be getting better each year.