The POREtal to advancing plant diagnostics: Flongle for tomato bacterial race typing and beyond

Abstract

Bacterial leaf spot is an economically important seed-borne disease of tomatoes globally. There are four known species (races) of Xanthomonas, which can cause the disease. Physical race typing is a bottleneck in industry as it involves a lengthy process of complicated phenotyping inoculated plants. Similarly, the genomes of the four races are highly conserved, so previous attempts at molecular diagnostics have been unsuccessful. Using nanopore sequencing on Flongle Flow Cells, we were able to obtain genetic resolution for distinction. This reduces turnaround time for diagnosis by 75% and allows us to make important pest management decisions for our fields.