b'Youre developing a new DNA-based PCR test for SCN. Why now?We try and anticipate whats coming in terms of agricultural challenges up ahead. And we would like to put testing options in place Kim Kenward ahead of time to help deal with them before R&D Manager they become really big issues. We can pivotTHE FIRST THING I ACTUALLY 20/20 Seed Labs quickly to new testing if we need to, but weCHALLENGE PEOPLE TO DO IS TO START Kim serves as researchprefer to actually have everything thought and developmentout beforehand and have it ready before weTHINKING ABOUT THE SEED ITSELF.manager for 20/20actually need it. SCN hasnt been a problem Shannon BiemanSeed Labs in Nisku,in the West up to now, but with the deregu-Alta. She is verylation of SCN as a quarantine pest in 2013, involved in the area ofwere not that surprised that weve been seed quality policy, andseeing reports of it being found. This is going serves as chairpersonto become an issue, and we were just trying of the Canadian ISO/TCto stay ahead of the game on it.34/SC 16 committeeHow widely used could this become?(Horizontal methods forWhat are the strengths of the PCR-based test asRight now, we see it as a tool for monitoring molecular biomarkeropposed to the traditional kind? for the establishment of the nematode present analysis).When we did our strengths and weaknessesin Western Canada. We know that its just analysis of the existing test, what we reallystarting, and we would like to be able to use liked about it was it was relatively simple. Itour test to screen fields that are at risk and used a large sample, a minimum amount ofcheck whether or not were actually starting equipment, and it was very fast. The problemto see SCN expand beyond known fields that was the size of the sample wasnt somethingit is present in. Wed like to expand our test that we could easily match with a DNA- capability into actually testing plant tissues as based approach. We were looking to actuallywell as soil and look at parts of the field that increase the sensitivity of the test, becauseyou arent necessarily expecting the nema-one of the basic weaknesses of the tradi- todes to be present in and at different times tional test is that it really only looks for theof the year. With that information, wed like live motile forms of the of the nematode. Weto look at a longer possibility of potentially know that since we are looking at very lowtesting for levels of soybean cyst nematode levels of infection right now in the West, thatthat we see and that we can potentially were not going to find a lot of those motilequantitate with a DNA based test, and equate forms. So, we need better sensitivity in orderthat with what you might be able to expect in to be able to detect the much more prevailingterms of yield losses and the load of patho-motile forms.gen that you have present in your field.JANUARY 2022 GERMINATION.CA 37'