The importance of black root rot in cotton has increased to the point that it can determine if a field could be planted or not with the crop. There had been some attempts to use a predictive method to relate the levels of the fungus in the soil with the severity of the disease. However, certain correlations between soil types, history of the diseases in the paddock and quantification of the pathogen need to be tested in Australian soils. “Traditional” testing methods such as ELISA and colony enumeration methods had shown certain correlation with the disease incidence. New methods such as qPCR had also shown promising results. A mix of different testing techniques can have the possibility of yielding a method that can serve as a predictive tool without being expensive or impractical. After a comprehensive worldwide literature review, the most practical method in terms of value-for-money, practicability and availability would be set up under laboratory conditions to test the correlation between propagules of black root rot in the soil and history of disease development in the plant.

An increase in disease incidence is commonly seen hand-in-hand with increased productivity in all agricultural sectors over time. An increased incidence of one such disease, black root rot (Thielaviopsis basicola) of cotton, is a high risk to the returns of a number of cotton growers. A simple way to ameliorate the impact of this disease would be the implementation of a practical diagnostic test that would help agronomists and cotton producers to better manage black root rot to minimise investment risk. However, such a tool is not commercially available yet.

Microbiology Laboratories Australia can help solve this problem. We are experts in developing new diagnostic tests for soil microbiology, and providing them as a commercial service to meet the specific needs of individual industry sectors and end users. The development of a test that predicted the potential for black root rot in cotton crops would provide important new information to cotton growers and agronomists to help minimise the losses caused by black root rot. The proposed work will be conducted in two stages:

1. Comprehensive survey of worldwide scientific literature related to detection and quantification of black root rot of cotton (Thielaviopsis basicola).

2. Develop a quantitative method with predictive potential based on worldwide best practice up to trial test stage.