THE NEED FOR DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS AND INFRASTRUCTURE

摘要

The increasing threats to agricultural and natural plant systems from introduced pests and pathogens have the potential to destabilize ecosystems and jeopardize achieving global food security. Plant-based agriculture is the foundation of food production systems worldwide. To secure our plant systems, every nation needs the diagnostic infrastructure to ensure the early detection and rapid, accurate diagnoses of disease outbreaks. A comprehensive strategy that includes technology development and deployment, networked diagnostic laboratories, and diagnostician training programs is essential. While traditional symptom-based and morphological diagnostics remain important, nucleic acid and protein based technologies have greatly increased the accuracy and reduced the time for positive identifications. Equally important to the technology employed is a cost-effective and statistically sound sampling strategy. Experience is critical component for effective diagnostics. The very wide spectrum of taxo-nomic groups from which these plant pathogens arise, underscores the need for access to expertise that can be attained through the establishment of secured communications networks.