2016 Volume 58 Pages 91-93
Bacterial shoot blight is a disease that has the potential to have a significant impact on tea cultivation in Shizuoka prefecture. To enable the easy and rapid detection of the causal agent of this disease, a direct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method was developed using samples from tea leaves. A piece of tea leaf that included a water-soaked lesion was ground down in sterile water. After the debris had settled, the suspension was boiled and then used as a PCR template. When the undiluted supernatant was used as the template, marked PCR interference occurred. In contrast, a clear target band was detected when a 10-fold dilution of the supernatant was used as the template. This method was shown to be an easy and rapid way identifying the causative pathogen of bacterial shoot blight on tea plants.
