Methods of testing seeds for the presence of pathogens are of four main types. The seed may be (1) directly examined; (2) examined after incubation, either for the presence of pathogens or symptoms; (3) plated on agar so that pathogens grow out into colonies which can be identified or recognized; or (4) subjected to techniques which allow the use of modern serological developments, e.g. ELISA, SSEM, RIA, ISEM, Dot-ELISA, PCR and the linkage chain reaction (LCR). Comprehensive accounts of the methodology of detection are given in text books by Neergaard (1977), Agarwal and Sinclair (1987) and Maude (1996). The principles supporting the general and specific diagnostic techniques used in plant pathology have been described by Fox (1993).
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