Cape St Paul wilt disease (CSPWD) is a lethal disease of coconut palms caused by a phytoplasma, which is causing devastation throughout the coastal regions of Ghana. It is related to similar lethal diseases of coconut that are destroying coconut plantations in Tanzania, Mozambique, Mexico and parts of the Caribbean.
Regional testing in Ghana
Having developed a LAMP assay for diagnosis of this disease, we took the new Genie® II machine out to Sekondi/Takoradi in the Western Region of Ghana in April 2011 to begin field trialing of this rapid diagnostic system.
Methods
Samples were collected in the field by drilling into palm trunks and extracting approx 0.5g trunk borings into 5 mls alkaline polyethylene glycol DNA extraction buffer in plastic bottles containing 3 steel ball-bearings.
The bottles were shaken for 2 mins to extract the DNA. Because the Genie® II we had taken out to Ghana was lacking the rechargeable battery at the time, samples were then taken back to the lab for the LAMP analysis, and 1 μl of the extracted DNA mix was added directly into 24 μl of the isothermal LAMP mix, which had been prepared 1 week earlier in Nottingham and shipped out to Ghana.
