Sequencing airborne DNA to monitor crop pathogens and pestsShow others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: iScience, E-ISSN 2589-0042, Vol. 28, no 7, article id 112912Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Crop pests and diseases increasingly challenge the global food system. To prepare for and detect outbreaks, surveillance plays an important role. Traditional monitoring methods are often organism-specific, making large-scale monitoring of crop pathogens and pests impractical. We here investigate the potential for using shotgun sequencing of airborne eDNA for large-scale surveillance of crop pathogens and pests. We show that it is possible to detect DNA from all types of organisms in air, and that DNA can be classified down to species level. However, the accuracy of the identification is highly dependent on the quality of reference genomes of both the pathogens or pests, and their close relatives present in the region. Finally, we find that observed degree of crop damages correlate with amount of DNA from crop pathogens and pests in air, showing the promise of this approach for surveillance of all types of crop pathogens and pests.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cell Press, 2025. Vol. 28, no 7, article id 112912
Keywords [en]
Agricultural science, Environmental biotechnology, Environmental monitoring, Genomics, Omics
National Category
Agricultural Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-242030DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112912Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105009260113OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-242030DiVA, id: diva2:1982739
Funder
Swedish Research Council Formas, 2016-01371Swedish Research Council Formas, 2019-00579Swedish Research Council, 2021–062832025-07-082025-07-082025-07-08Bibliographically approved