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

Here, we have demonstrated a novel scheme for combining isothermal amplification and custom synthetic biology viral sensors for the detection of the important plant pathogen cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) from infected plant lysate. Building off of previously elucidated STAR design rules (15), we have shown that our molecular sensors can be efficiently designed, built, and implemented for use in this important plant diagnostic context. The use of STARs in PLANT-Dx complements previous uses of toehold translational switches for similar purposes in human viral diagnostics (5) , and could lead to more powerful combinations of the two technologies in the future. In addition, we have shown that these reactions can be readily run without the need for extraneous heating or visualization equipment. The ability of our methodology to selectively detect genomic sequences from cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and . CC-BY 4.0 International license is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It . https://doi.org/10.1101/498998 doi: bioRxiv preprint The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It . https://doi.org/10.1101/498998 doi: bioRxiv preprint The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It . https://doi.org/10.1101/498998 doi: bioRxiv preprint