Exciting news from the Tree World I inhabit. New technology developed by the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) offers a simple
and affordable diagnostic test for Oak Wilt utilizing nanotechnology and gold.
Pictured below is a microfluidic device used to isolate the Oak Wilt fungus from wood chip samples.
Picture credit-University of Minnesota
Oak Wilt is a devastating vascular fungus that quickly kills Oak trees. Arborists in the Kansas
City Metro area deal with Oak Wilt every year. The disease is not particularly widespread in our area,
but it can move quickly through root grafting in wooded areas with multiple Oak trees.
This can be a painful and expensive experience for homeowners with wooded lots.
Past testing for Oak Wilt has been a slow process, sometimes waiting for weeks to receive a positive diagnosis-it is often difficult to get a positive diagnosis from wood samples, creating a slow and frustrating process for everyone involved.
This latest scientific breakthrough enables Oak wilt detection within 30 minutes of sampling at a fraction of the cost (less than $5). This new technology uses gold nanoparticles to generate a chemiluminescent signal in the presence of Oak Wilt-this chemical signal must be read by a specialized hand held reader.
The team working on this project are refining a portable system for use in the field,
eliminating the need to send samples to the lab for confirmation. The field project requires only dipping wood chips from infected trees into a solution to extract DNA, then mixing with a second solution of gold nanoparticles to allow detection using a hand held luminometer.
The innovation by
Abbas' research lab enables oak wilt detection within 30 minutes of
sampling and at a fraction of the cost: less than five dollars per
sample. The technology uses the agglomeration of gold nanoparticles to
generate a chemiluminescent signal that can be read by a hand-held
reader, in the presence of the oak wilt fungus DNA. The team is now
refining a portable system that allows early detection of the disease in
the field without sending samples to the laboratory. The
new technology
requires only dipping wood chips obtained from infected trees into a
first solution to extract the DNA, then mixed with a second solution of
gold nanoparticles to allow detection using a hand-held luminometer.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-technology-oak-wilt-faster.html#jCp
The innovation by
Abbas' research lab enables oak wilt detection within 30 minutes of
sampling and at a fraction of the cost: less than five dollars per
sample. The technology uses the agglomeration of gold nanoparticles to
generate a chemiluminescent signal that can be read by a hand-held
reader, in the presence of the oak wilt fungus DNA. The team is now
refining a portable system that allows early detection of the disease in
the field without sending samples to the laboratory. The
new technology
requires only dipping wood chips obtained from infected trees into a
first solution to extract the DNA, then mixed with a second solution of
gold nanoparticles to allow detection using a hand-held luminometer.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-technology-oak-wilt-faster.html#jCp
Thank you science! This is going to speed up the process of testing for Oak Wilt, help Arborists
and homeowners and should ultimately save thousands of Oak trees that would be lost to the rapid spread of Oak Wilt.
