A rapid staining‐assisted wood sampling method for PCR‐based detection of pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in Pinus massoniana wood tissue

Summary For reasons of unequal distribution of more than one nematode species in wood, and limited availability of wood samples required for the PCR‐based method for detecting pinewood nematodes in wood tissue of Pinus massoniana , a rapid staining‐assisted wood sampling method aiding PCR‐based detection of the pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Bx) in small wood samples of P. massoniana was developed in this study. This comprised a series of new techniques: sampling, mass estimations of nematodes using staining techniques, and lowest limit Bx nematode mass determination for PCR detection. The procedure was undertaken on three adjoining 5‐mg wood cross‐sections, of 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.015 cm dimension, that were cut from a wood sample of 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 cm initially, then the larger wood sample was stained by acid fuchsin, from which two 5‐mg wood cross‐sections (that adjoined the three 5‐mg wood cross‐sections, mentioned above) were cut. Nematode‐staining‐spots (NSSs) in each of the two stained sections were counted under a microscope at 100× magnification. If there were eight or more NSSs present, the adjoining three sections were used for PCR assays. The B. xylophilus – specific amplicon of 403 bp ( DQ855275 ) was generated by PCR assay from 100.00% of 5‐mg wood cross‐sections that contained more than eight Bx NSSs by the PCR assay. The entire sampling procedure took only 10 min indicating that it is suitable for the fast estimation of nematode numbers in the wood of P. massonina as the prelimary sample selections for other more expensive Bx‐detection methods such as PCR assay.