With the snow melting and thoughts leaning more in the direction of planting gardens and crops, the focus is fixated on products that protect what we grow.
Beverly, Mass.-based LexaGene Holdings Inc.(TSX-Venture:LXG) hogged the headlines on Tuesday by making it known that its LX analyzer successfully detects Botrytis cinerea, also known as Gray Mold, a common agricultural pathogen responsible for $10 to $100 billion in agricultural losses worldwide each year. This fungus infects over 200 plant species causing the most yield loss in strawberries, grapes and cannabis.
For this study, LexaGene’s scientists used the LX analyzer technology to process vegetable washes from strawberries that were suspected of premature decay due to a plant pathogen as well as wash from strawberries that appeared healthy. The LX analyzer generated very clear and conclusive results for the detection of Botrytis in the prematurely decaying strawberries but none in the healthy strawberries.
Meanwhile, LexaGene is busy developing the very first fully automated pathogen detection platform that is open-access. The open-access feature will empower end-users to target any pathogen of interest, as they can load their own real-time PCR assays onto the instrument for customized pathogen detection.
Shares grew like the plants the company purports to protect, four cents, or 7.3%, to 59 cents, on 141,000
