Hydroponics: A Novel Approach to Culturing Aphanomyces euteiches

Aphanomyces euteiches is a soil-borne, economically impactful pathogen that afflicts pulse crops. Isolating it from environmental soil samples is made difficult by other microorganisms naturally present in field soil, particularly Rhizopus, that outcompete it on selective media. However, by isolating and culturing A. euteiches from pea plants grown in a hydroponics apparatus inoculated with field soil, this can be ameliorated to allow for enhanced observation and culturing of A. euteiches in media. This experiment tested and validated a method of hydroponic growth for A. euteiches, and confirmed that it yielded A. euteiches isolates using universal CPN60 sequencing.