About the plant clinic
The Plant Clinic is a specialty laboratory with a focus on research in disease diagnostics, working in close collaboration with the Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket). The clinic handles diseases caused by microbial pathogens, viruses, and nematodes mainly in food and feed crops. The clinic does not handle weeds, insects, or quarantine pests, and does not perform toxicology assays. Of particular interest to the clinic are orphan/unidentified diseases, and emerging/re-emerging diseases for which there is a lack of expertise and/or detection methods.
The lab is located at SLU BioCentrum in Uppsala and is part of the Department of Plant Biology. The activities of the clinic are supervised by the head of department and a reference group that ensures good collaboration and complementarity with the activities of the Jordbruksverket and the Swedish Veterinary Agency (Statens veterinärmedicinska anstalt – SVA).
Activities
- Verification and validation of Koch’s postulates for diseases caused by non-quarantine microorganisms, viruses, and nematodes
- Development of disease diagnostics and monitoring tools for field applications.
- Development of analytical and molecular diagnostics methods for laboratory applications.
- Practical training in disease diagnostics for professionals and students.
Resources and collections
The clinic builds and maintains important libraries of plant-associated mycobiomes, including:
- DmorphX: a generic collection of fungal pathogens, endophytes, and epiphytes from various crop and non-crop hosts from Sweden.
- Specialty collections for Fusarium sp., Epicoccum sp., Zymoseptoria sp., and Epichloe sp.
The airborne analytics extension (coming soon)
The clinic has a first specialty extension for drones and GIS analytics that will be active at SLU’s research station in Lövsta (Uppsala). The extensions at SLU field stations are placed under the supervision of the Head of Forestry and Agricultural Operations at SLU.
Reference group
- Pär Ingvarsson (Head of Department of Plant Biology)
- Victoria Thuillier (Head of Forestry and Agricultural Operations SLU)
- Björn Andersson (Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology)
Contact the clinic’s experts for further information
General inquiries
Microbial plant pathogens
Salim Bourras
Associate Professor in Plant Pathology
(Department of Plant Biology)
salim.bourras@slu.se
Plant pathogenic nematodes
Maria Viketoft
Associate Professor in Ecology
(Department of Ecology)
maria.viketoft@slu.se
Plant viruses
Anders Kvarnheden
Professor in Plant Virology
(Department of Plant Biology)
anders.kvarnheden@slu.se