ALT FIGURE 1 Swiss needle cast in British Columbia, Canada. Top three photos of Douglas-fir trees showing classical symptoms of Swiss needle cast: low needle retention and chlorosis. Middle photo shows 11 needles showing varying chlorosis and stomata occluded by pseudothecia. Bottom photo shows close-up of stomata occluded by pseudothecia.
ALT A crowd of people at a protest. One is holding a sign that reads “science = progress”
ALT Multiplex design and purpose. The SODplex-lin assay enables the identification of all four invasive lineages of Phytophthora ramorum present in North American and Europe, using highly specific single-copy gene targets. The SODplex-ITS and SODplex-mito assays combine the same very specific assays for the most relevant North American lineages (EU1/NA1/NA2) with a more sensitive species-level assay targeting either the ITS region (SODplex-ITS) or a mitochondrial genome region (SODplex-mito). The SODplex-base assay offers a single reaction option for the identification of P. ramorum with one very specific and single-copy (Pram-C62) primer-probe combination and a second one more sensitive but less specific, aimed at the ITS (RAM-2), coupled with a mitochondrial assay (TrnM) that targets Phytophthora spp. Altogether, the different multiplexes cover a wide range of specificity and sensitivity, capable of fulfilling a wide array of diagnostics needs.
