Quantitative real-time PCR assay for rapid detection of plant and human pathogenic Macrophomina phaseolina from field and environmental samples

A real-time qPCR assay was developed to detect and quantify Macrophomina phaseolina abundance in rhizosphere soil and plant tissue. Both TaqMan and SYBR green techniques were targeted on ~ 1 kb sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) of M. phaseolina and two sets of specific primers were designed for SYBR green (MpSyK) and TaqMan (MpTqK) assays. No cross-hybridization and no fluorescent signal exceeding the baseline threshold was observed in TaqMan and SYBR green assays, respectively. The minimum detection limit or sensitivity of TaqMan assay was 30 fg/μL of M. phaseolina DNA and limit of quantification of M. phaseolina viable population was estimated as 0.66 × 10(5) CFU/g soil(-1) equivalent to 10 pg/μL of target DNA. This is the first report which demonstrated real-time qPCR assays with greater specificity and sensitivity to detect M. phaseolina population in soil and plant materials.