Next Generation Sequencing as a rapid detection tool for plant pathogens

The advent of next generation sequencing during the last decade has permitted to sequence a variety of genomes, transcriptomes and microbiomes from environmental samples. Yet, data analysis still represents a bottleneck for obtaining fast, sensitive and accurate results. The objective of this project was to develop a rapid, sensitive and accurate bioinformatic tool that can detect plant pathogens from metagenomes of environmental samples where the presence of plant pathogens is suspicious or unknown. The bioinformatic tool is termed E-probe Diagnostics for Nucleic acid Analysis (EDNA) and is faster, more sensitive and more accurate than other bioinformatic techniques.