Reverse‐transcription recombinase‐aided amplification and CRISPR/Cas12a‐based universal detection for fast screening and accurate identification of six pospiviroids infecting Solanaceae crops

Abstract BACKGROUND Pospiviroids, members of the genus Pospiviroid , can cause severe diseases in tomato and other Solanaceae crops, causing considerable economic losses worldwide. Six pospiviroids including potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd), tomato chlorotic dwarf viroid (TCDVd), tomato planta macho viroid (TPMVd), Columnea latent viroid (CLVd), pepper chat fruit viroid (PCFVd), and tomato apical stunt viroid (TASVd) are regulated in many countries and organizations. Rapid, accurate detection is thus crucial for controlling the spread of these pospiviroids. RESULTS For simultaneous detection of these six pospiviroids, we developed a rapid, visual method that uses a reverse transcription recombinase‐aided amplification (RT‐RAA) assay coupled with a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR‐associated protein 12a (CRISPR/Cas12a) system. In particular, this technique could achieve both universal detection and specific identification of the six target pospiviroids within 40 min. The universal detection could diagnose the six target pospiviroids in a single reaction, and the specific identification could identify each target pospiviroid without cross‐reactivity of other pospiviroids. The sensitivity limits for the target pospiviroids detection with the proposed detection method were higher than those of the conventional reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) method. CONCLUSION We designed an RT‐RAA‐CRISPR/Cas12a‐based universal detection method for both large‐scale screening and accurate identification of the six target pospiviroids, which is appropriate for on‐site detection. Our study results can aid in performing rapid, large‐scale screening of multiple pests simultaneously. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.