Modern approaches for early detection of forest pathogens are sorely needed in the United States

Abstract

Current plant regulatory protocols rely on lists of known pathogens, but many forest pathogens are unknown. Live plants are inspected at port of entry for disease symptoms, but many plant pathogens can persist asymptomatically. Current efforts should be expanded by including random sampling of both symptomatic and asymptomatic plant tissues. Molecular probes and standardized protocols could be developed for invasive forest pathogens of most concern to the United States. High‐throughput sequencing (also known as next‐generation sequencing, or NGS) and bioinformatics could be used to identify potential pathogens in plant and soil samples collected at ports of entry from sentinel trees planted abroad, or in biosurveillance efforts. If potentially invasive forest pathogens were to be identified at ports of entry, sentinel trees, or with biosurveillance, this information must be shared with agencies that conduct forest health monitoring surveys beyond ports of entry.

Bioinformatics matters: The accuracy of plant and soil fungal community data is highly dependent on the metabarcoding pipeline

“…The second most sensitive approach, Se2, used the USEARCH clustering algorithm. These two highly sensitive bioinformatic approaches are potentially useful for the early detection of invasive species (Comtet et al 2015), including fungal pathogens (Munck and Bonello 2018), for the detection of emerging pathogens accounting for the decline or death of host populations (Ricciardi et al 2017), and for exploring environmental reservoirs of pathogens (Agtmaal et al 2017). On the other hand, if the purpose of a study is to focus only on fungal species present with high certainty (i.e.…”

The Global Forest Health Crisis: A Public Good Social Dilemma in Need of International Collective Action

“…The policy initiative includes: Switching to pest free packaging; Minimizing outbreaks with early detection and rapid response; Augmenting international pest protection programs; Restricting high-risk live plant trade; and Tightening enforcement of penalties for non-compliant shipments. particular, surveys of sentinel native trees and close relatives planted abroad support pre-invasion detection for high-risk species and commodities(60,152,161,172). Once properly and formally integrated into biosecurity frameworks, early-warning gardens in new plantings, botanical gardens, urban forests, and plantations will provide precious lead time to impose quarantines under SPS Article 5.7 and develop tools and techniques needed to support effective detection and response efforts.…”