This summer will mark the start of a three-year research project that could help stop the spread of diseases in soybeans.
Brandon University's Dr. Bryan Cassone says he's using a relatively new molecular technique to look for disease in soybeans. He says this method will help identify disease before visual symptoms appear.
"What we've been using in most cases currently to diagnose diseases is mostly visual symptom development," he says, "which is fine, it's not 100 per cent accurate, and you miss out on a lot of disease and you can't detect it before you see it."
But Cassone's research aims to do just that: identify and target disease before its affects are apparent.
A press release from BU explains that from each field, researchers will, "pluck a single leaf from every soybean plant, preserve it on ice or in a special preservative, and take it back to a BU lab to be fully sequenced," in order to detect any type of soybean disease within the plants.
Cassone says his research will provide accurate and early diagnosis.
Source : Steinbachonline