Farmers are always on the lookout for diseases in their crops, but a pathogen may be present in a plant for a number of weeks before symptoms appear.

English-based company Optigene has developed a range of rapid, easy-to-use molecular diagnostic solutions to provide real-time analysis of plant tissue DNA.

This allows for diseases to be detected up to three weeks before symptoms occur. This may allow farmers to apply a targeted pre-symptomatic fungicide, which, in turn, reduces broad-spectrum pesticide use.

It is very simple to use. A farmer takes four or five leaves from a field, places them in the provided cartridge, and then slots the cartridge into the Optigene MDX4A platform machine. Results will be provided in less than 30 minutes.

Depending on the level of detail required by the farmer, the result may be that there is a pathogen present or not, that there is a low, medium, or high level of the pathogen, or it is even possible to view latency graphs of the pathogen, so that fungicides can be timed correctly. Cartridges are specific to individual crops and are disposable.

The winter wheat cartridge can detect septoria, yellow and brown rust, BYDV, take-all (with a root sample), powdery mildew, and fusarium (with an ear sample).

Optigene has extensive experience in the human and animal molecular diagnostic sectors, and is now moving into plant health.

To help farmers who are unfamiliar with early disease detection, Optigene launched its Grow Smarter Disease & Pest Detection Playbook: Winter Wheat Edition at Cereals 2025 with technical insight from Ceres Research.

This booklet outlines when farmers should use this early detection system, what they should use it on, and why.

The company says that using this system provides significant advantages for precision agriculture, sustainability and resilience.