Specific detection of Phytophthora cactorum in diseased strawberry plants using nested polymerase chain reaction

Validated protocols for DNA purification and PCR amplification are reported for detection of Phytophthora cactorum in diseased strawberry plants. To remove PCR inhibitors, necrotic strawberry tissues were soaked in 5% alconox solution for > 12 h before DNA extraction, and the extracted genomic DNA was embedded in an agarose gel chamber and subjected to electrophoresis. The purified DNA was amplified reliably by PCR. Nested PCR was used to detect a portion of the rRNA gene of P. cactorum in samples. In the first round of PCR, primers ITS1 and ITS4 amplified fragments of varying sizes from total genomic DNA from diseased strawberry plants. In the second round of PCR, a 1:25 dilution of the first-round PCR products was used as template with two P. cactorum-specific primer pairs (BPhycacL87FRG and BPhycacR87RRG, which amplified a 340-bp fragment and a 480-bp fragment from the rRNA gene; and BPhycacL89FRG and BPhycacR176RRG, which amplified a 431-bp fragment). Validation tests using culture-based isolations as a standard for comparison indicated that the DNA purification and PCR primers and amplification protocols were reliable and specifically amplified a portion of the rRNA gene of P. cactorum from necrotic root, crown and petiole tissues of strawberry naturally infected by the pathogen.