Projects

The tree nursery and fruit growing industry suffer from high losses each year due to the infestation of the fruit plants with phytoplasmas, viruses and bacteria. The introduction of the pathogen must be detected immediately to enable fast initiation of quarantine measures. Otherwise, entire stocks are endangered due to the rapidly spreading infections. There is thus a need for easy-to-use, highly sensitive and specific pathogen diagnostics in the production and trade of plant propagating material and in the monitoring of orchards. Within the project iRotation a tool will be developed, which will be adapted to the needs of the quality control of fruit trees at the point of need. The iRotation system offers the following unique features: • Fast and robust pathogen identification by loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). • Can be used on site through the use of centrifugal microfluidics. • Automated analysis with pre-stored reagents and simple integrated mechanical lysis using a sample input module. • Cost-effective production of the cartridge by injection molding. • Adaptation of the universal cartridge to the needs of the user through the integrated mediator displacement technology. • Improved value retention of production areas. • Resource-friendly concept of the iRotation cartridge, which is made of homogeneous material.