Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

The identification of red chicory plants infected by Verticillium dahliae at the moment of transplant for seed production is needed since at this time some infected plants could be symptomless. Since the usual plating method is time-consuming and not always reliable, a PCR-based method was evaluated, using oligonucleotide primers described as specific for this pathogen. The experiments allowed to obtain the optimal amplification profile and to verify the good specificity of the primers VMSP1/VMSP2 that, with DNA extracted from Verticillium-infected taproot tissues, amplify a specific fragment of 140 bp.