Participation of MSc student of CULTIVAR in the spotlight in the International Conference of Plants European Food Safety Authority

Marlene Mota, a MSc student in Biochemistry at the University of Beira Interio, developing her research at CATAA – Associação Centro de Apoio Tecnológico Agro-Alimentar de Castelo Branco in collaboration with FitoLab of Instituto Pedro Nunes, ranked 3rd in the most viewed and shared posters of the conference of a set of 102 posters. The work presented aims to create a simple, fast and sensitive molecular diagnosis technique that can be used in the field by any user. This method is based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and the new generation of massive sequencing from Oxford Nanopore Technologies. By coupling these two techniques we can early detect and identify the subspecies of Xylella fastidiosa in potentially infected plants. This methodology allows to evaluate, in the field, the presence of this bacteria reducing the response time from several days to a few hours.