Diagnostics for plant protection (DIAGN)
DIAGN is the AR related to “Diagnostics for plant protection”. This activity usually supports international and national monitoring programmes activated by the Regional Phytosanitary Services and it includes the application of available diagnostic techniques and the development and validation of new diagnostic tools.
Mainly, DIAGN activities take advantage of molecular techniques, but one of the missions of DIAGN is to develop novel tools to identify diseased phenotypes in association with phytophagous attacks and pathogen infections.
As an indication, the activities include: a) the control of nursery production (including the phytosanitary certification chain and mycorrhizate plants); b) the verification of the presence of quarantine pathogens and herbicide-resistant weeds in specific areas; c) technology transfer to operators in the sector; d) studies aimed at identifying strategies for the early diagnosis of quarantine pathogens to prevent their introduction and spreading.
In order to quantitatively describe stress and disease conditions, DIAGN consider the use of precision phenotyping platforms, based on the acquisition and analysis of images to detect morphometric and physiological parameters of plant development.
Keywords: Diagnosis, quarantine, nursery, certification, phenotyping