PLANT-Dx: A Molecular Diagnostic for Point of Use Detection of Plant Pathogens

M. Verosloff; J. Chappell; K. L. Perry; J. R. Thompson; J. B. Lucks

A notable drawback of current gold standard diagnostics is the need for peripheral equipment for either amplification or visualization of outputs. Even simple heating elements for controlled incubations are a major hindrance during deployment within the field and can be costprohibitive. We sought to exploit the flexible temperature requirements of both RPA and cell free gene expression reactions by attempting to run our diagnostic reactions for CMV infected lysate using only body heat. This resulted in clear yellow color only in the presence of infected lysate, with no major difference observed between these reactions and those previously incubated within a thermocycler and plate reader (Figure 2C ).