Abstract
Panicle blight and seed rot disease caused mainly by Burkholderia glumae and Burkholderia gladioli is threatening rice cultivation worldwide. The bacteria have been reported as seed-borne pathogens from rice. Accurate detection of both pathogens on the seeds is very important for limiting the disease dissemination. Novel primer pairs targeting specific molecular markers were developed for the robust detection of B. glumae and B. gladioli. The designed primers were specific in detecting the target species with no apparent crossreactions with other related Burkholderia species at the expected product size. Both primer pairs displayed a high degree of sensitivity for detection of B. glumae and B. gladioli separately in monoplex PCR or simultaneously in duplex PCR from both extracted gDNA and directly preheated bacterial cell suspensions. Limit of detection was as low as 0.1 ng of gDNA of both species and 3.86 × 102 cells for B. glumae and 5.85 × 102 cells for B. gladioli. On inoculated rice seeds, the designed primers could separately or simultaneously detect B. glumae and B. gladioli with a detection limit as low as 1.86 × 103 cells per rice seed for B. glumae and 1.04 × 104 cells per rice seed of B. gladioli. The novel primers maybe valuable as a more sensitive, specific, and robust tool for the efficient simultaneous detection of B. glumae and B. gladioli on rice seeds, which is important in combating rice panicle blight and seed rot by early detection and confirmation of the dissemination of pathogen-free rice seeds.