PCR-Based Diagnostics of Agricultural Pests and Diseases

Abstract

Since its introduction about a decade ago, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become a widely accepted technique in many agricultural research institutions. By now, a staggering number of variations to the basic PCR amplification process has been described, and even an approximate overview over these would be beyond the scope of this contribution (see Newton and Graham [1994] for a comprehensive review). Rather, we give a short introduction to the principles of PCR and exemplify the benefit of basic methods for agricultural diagnostics.