Crop & Food Research has recently purchased the latest DNA detection equipment. The Taqman 7700 enable the qualitative and quantitative detection of pests and diseases in agriculture, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food, and diseases associated with food safety problems in the marine, meat and dairy industries.

The Taqman PCR (polymerase chain reaction) equipment is in principle a DNA multiplier, able to detect a very small number of DNA molecules of the target organism amongst all the other DNA present in the sample and them copy and multiply it up to a detectable/quantifiable level.

Dr John Marshall, who oversees the Taqman facility, is enthusiastic about its potential uses.

"It opens up major opportunities for quantitative detection of pests and diseases in agricultural crops providing better pest management advice to the farmer, monitoring the presence of GMOs in foods, as well as improving QA and HACCP quality checking procedures, border security operations, and developing a new generation of phytosanitary endorsements for our export markets," he said.

The Taqman technology is a considerable advance on existing PCR technology. Most importantly, this machine gives us the opportunity, for the first time, to quality the amount of DNA present in a sample. In addition, sensitivity is greatly advanced, it has higher throughput and is semi-automatic in its operation. The equipment also has dedicated software to process results into a finished format which will reduce turnaround time for the test.

By Iona Boase

Company news release
N1895