Bridgestone established a technique that can be used to diagnose white root rot disease in para rubber trees, which are the primary source for natural rubber used in tyres and other rubber applications.
Since currently white root rot disease can only be identified by visual inspection, detection accuracy is low. Visual inspections can only be performed by digging into the soil around the tree. The complexity is time-consuming and often leads to late detections and misdiagnoses, causing damage from the disease to spread.
To respond to this issue, Bridgestone has been cooperating since 2010 with the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology and numerous universities to promote development of technologies that diagnosis white root rot disease in a prompt manner.
Bridgestone has now established the LAMP Method, a diagnosis technique that utilizes biotechnologies. The company has developed a reagent kit based on the genetic structure of the disease-causing pathogens.
The LAMP (Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification) Method is a gene amplification technique developed by Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd. The technique amplifies specific DNA arrangements of pathogens in the soil to detect their presence.
The Lamp Method can confirm the presence of the pathogen in the field easily, without the use of special equipment. With the Lamp Method, the early detection of white root rot disease is now possible, and it is anticipated that this technique will help control the spread of the disease from infected trees to healthy ones. In addition, by expanding this technique, which can be utilized regardless of knowledge and experience, damage control and maintenance can be performed easily. In this way, the LAMP Method is expected to have an enormous effect in terms of plantation management as well.