For my P.infestans work I normally work in the biosafety cabinet when culturing on media or tuber slices. However, when washing out the tubers to remove spores, filtering and then counting the cells under a microscope, I work on the bench. Are there any safety concerns about this practise? Should I do all the work exclusively from the biosafety cabinet?
I have also recently been working with P. infestans this way (flow/safety cabinet when making tuber slices and culturing) But counting cells under the hemocytometer/microscope on the bench should be fine if the space is cleaned and with ethanol after and wiped. I know it takes a lot of effort to actually infect the plants (cold, dark, humid conditions) so the risk that this pathogen spreads on the bench seems quite low, especially as it initially needs living tissue (in the biotrophic phase) to infect. If there are safety concerns with this practice, I'm not aware of them....
Hi Jane,
To the best of my knowledge P. infestans does not infect humans. There are other Pseudomonas species like P. aeruginosa that can infect respiratory tract. Luckily these don't infect potato. So I don't see a real biosafety hazard, but if you are concerned, please wear gloves. Pseudomonas family do not form spores - you can be assured.
Regards
Ranjith
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