One of the most important tenet of plant pathology is that the first step to effectively controlling a plant disease is identify its cause . Otherwise , control measure could be unable , leading to further plant expiration and scourge time and imagination . This is especially true of rosaceous russet scab disease ( RRD ) .
distinctive symptoms of RRD are hump and wide accepted ; they let in speedy elongation of new shoots , beldam ’ ling , small-scale or perverted leafage , red pigmentation of root or foliage , and overweening thorn development . However , none of these symptom is guarantee to be state when the disease is present , especially betimes in the disease cycle . An septic pink wine may have something as elusive as a thickened cane or flowers with few than normal petals – either of which could be easily overlooked or dismissed as a nutritive deficiency or even herbicide injury . Early RRD symptoms can be divers in expression and may motley based on age of plant , cultivar , and environmental condition , but later in the disease cycle , symptoms usually become open and obvious . But by this stage , RRD has likely spread to neighboring plant .
The simple fact that RRD is stimulate by a virus alone , spend a penny confirmation of the disease more intriguing . There are no obvious signs of the disease ’s presence like with powdery mildew where livid , powdery spore are prominent on leaf undersides . Complicating issue further , infected plant can be symptom - free for months , and viruses can not be look with a microscope , let alone a naked eye . Eriophyid hint transmit the computer virus , but even the mites are unmanageable to notice . They are too small to be seen with the naked oculus and are often unmanageable to find . diagnostician and scout have no choice but to swear on visible , discovered symptom , until serological and/or molecular technique can be lead in the research laboratory .
nebulose expression of symptoms early in the disease hertz is on the nose why researchers direct their free energy towards diagnostic instrument development . In the showcase of RRD , it is critical to discover a mean value of warm and easy diagnosis , preferably without having to destroy the works . Researchers have been work since 2014 on various aspects of RRD through a multi - year , multi - million dollar grant titled ‘ combat Rose Rosette Disease ’ funded by USDA NIFA , and development of diagnostics has been a key component . bonk sooner that a plant is infect will , in the very least , help fix spread head and movement of the disease .
A small team of researcher , part of the prominent group cite above , from Texas A&M , led by Dr. Dmitry Kurouski , developed a new diagnostic instrument for RRD espial . Using a deal - held , portable mass spectrometer , Dr. Kurouski ’s squad has aright identified the virus in leaf both non - invasively and non - destructively , with an almost clamant read . Raman spectroscopy works by trust on lighting to interact with molecular vibration in a foliage . A ‘ fingermark ’ is made ground on these vibration , stand for that the computer virus that cause RRD is identified by its unique fingerprint . Previously the squad proved that this engineering science could identify fungal diseases on Zea mays , wheat berry , and sorghum and finally adapted it to successfully compare healthy and asymptomatic rose leaf , as well as symptomatic and symptomless leaves . They could even differentiate rose leave-taking with different degrees of contagion .
While not yet ready for widespread adoption and manipulation in the manufacture , this tool can serve symptomatic labs by playact as an initial screen for RRD that can avail write on more costly , molecular technique . Plus it may be available for use in the field of operations one day .
The American Rose Society provided small enquiry grants for a portion of this work .
AmericanHort and the Horticultural Research Institute affiliate , in conjunction with like - minded organizations such as the Society of American Florists , antecedently supported funding of rose russet scab research at the University of Arkansas through the Farm Bill Section 10007 . AmericanHort participates on the consultatory board of the Specialty Crop Research Initiative ( SCRI)-funded Combatting Rose Rosette Disease projection .
