title: Upward movement of Verticillium dahliae from soil to olive plants detected by qPCR.
abstract: Olive trees play an important role in cultural, ecological, environmental and social fields, constituting in large part the Mediterranean landscape. In Tuscany, an important economic activity is based on olive. Unfortunately, the Verticillium wilt affects this species and causes vascular disease. In the present study, a real-time quantitative PCR approach has been used to detect and quantify Verticillium dahliae in soil and in olive tree tissues both in micropropagated and in seedling olives. The minimum amounts of V. dahliae DNA sequences detected in soil were 11.4 fg which is equivalent to less than one fungal haploid genome. In micropropagated olive the pathogen was detected in the leaves after 43 days, showing a vertical upward movement of the fungus from the culture medium to stem and leaves. A similar fungal behaviour was observed in inoculated olive stem where after 15 days the fungal DNA was detected from symptomless stem tissue above 8 cm the inoculation site. The described molecular approach is expected to provide a more sensitive and less time-consuming alternative detection method for V. dahliae than plating assay procedures, which were traditionally proposed as an early diagnosis method for Verticillium wilt to farmers and tree nursery growers.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni vegetali, del Suolo e dell'Ambiente agroforestale (DIPSA), sezione Scienza del Suolo e Nutrizione della Pianta, Università di Firenze, Piazzale delle Cascine, 28, 50144, Florence, Italy, mariateresa.ceccherini@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Ceccherini
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Luchi
authors.forename: Ottorino-Luca
authors.initials: OL
authors.lastname: Pantani
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ascher
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Capretti
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pietramellara
mesh_terms: D058491:Bacterial Load; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D031658:Olea / Q000382:microbiology*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000382:microbiology; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000382:microbiology; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013997:Time Factors; D020172:Verticillium / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal
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