Washington State University

Awards Issued Prior to January 20, 2025, Were Funded Under Previous Administrations and May Not Reflect the Priorities and Policies of the Current Administration. Accurate Diagnosis and Detection Methods Are Foundational for Managing Plant Diseases. the Long-term Goal of This Integrated Agricultural Biosecurity Project Is to Develop a Complete Field-to-report System Founded on a Simplified Sample Collection Protocol That Integrates High-throughput Molecular Diagnostics and Sample Archiving for Rapid and Effective Plant Disease Diagnostics. With Potato Growers Supporting the Initial Sample Collection Process, We Propose Capacity Building Activities to Equip a National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN) Laboratory for Virus Testing of Large Volumes of Potato Tuber Samples (objective 1). a Series of Greenhouse, Laboratory, and Field Sampling Activities Will Be Performed to Expand the Use of the Diagnostic Protocol to Detect Pathogens of Economic Importance to U.s. Agriculture (objective 2). the Project Will Also Create Educational and Workforce Training Opportunities on High-throughput Molecular Detection Methods That Leverage the Efficiencies of the Developed Diagnostic Protocol (objective 3). the Proposed Project Aims to Safeguard the U.s. Potato Industry by Detecting Multiple Potato Pathogens More Quickly Along With Transitioning the Diagnostic Protocol to a NPDN Laboratory, and Then Further Disseminating This Protocol to Other Diagnostic Labs.