Testing for DNA in the environment.

[geordief]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99zn92g2qgo

 

"Scientists sampling DNA in the air to monitor the spread of deadly diseases say their work could help make food prices cheaper "

I can think of potato blight as a candidate but there must be much more.

I wonder what they might test for.

[jimmydasaint]

A clever method which can immediately target pathogens for countermeasures against infections of crops, thereby increasing the yields for sale:

Quote

Our results document losses associated with 137 pathogens and pests associated with wheat, rice, maize, potato and soybean worldwide. Our yield loss (range) estimates at a global level and per hotspot for wheat (21.5% (10.1–28.1%)), rice (30.0% (24.6–40.9%)), maize (22.5% (19.5–41.1%)), potato (17.2% (8.1–21.0%)) and soybean (21.4% (11.0–32.4%)) suggest that the highest losses are associated with food-deficit regions with fast-growing populations, and frequently with emerging or re-emerging pests and diseases.     The global burden of pathogens and pests on major food crops | Nature Ecology & Evolution

Also, examples are the following:

Bacterium

• Xanthomonas campestris: This bacterium causes black rot in cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.

Virus

• Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV): This virus affects a wide range of plants, including tobacco, tomatoes, peppers, and other members of the Solanaceae family.

Fungus

• Puccinia graminis: This fungus is responsible for stem rust in cereal crops such as wheat, barley, and rye.

It should be interesting if the DNA of farmers and passers by is also sequenced....

[CharonY]

In most studies we employ methods to automatically prune human sequences (i.e. hits to human database) out of our data set. While interesting, it likely has little impact on farming practices as most farmers do not really like targeted approaches.