Peter Bonants with the Plant Research International at Wageningen University & Research presents on techniques to detect Phytophthora in plants including PCR, TaqMan PCR, PCR-RFLP, SSCP, SSR, AFLP, PLP and DNA barcodes.

Detection is an activity focused on demonstration of the presence or absence of a certain pathogen, which is suspected to be present in the sample. Targets can be bacteria, viruses, fungi, and pests found in plant, water, soil, or the air. Detection can be done based on physiological, biological, morphological, or protein/carbohydrate characteristics.

The Luminex system is used when detecting with protein based techniques. Luminex technology utilizes color codes and lasers to excite molecular tags and microspheres. 

When detecting with molecular based techniques, the DNA sequence of the perpetrator is determined and DNA sequence differences between the target and non-target are observed.

DNA barcoding is a new technique that uses a short sequence of a standard region of the genomic DNA as a molecular diagnostic marker for species identification.