Pine-wilt disease (PWD) is one of the most devastating forest diseases in Eurasia. PWD is known to be caused by pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus which is indigenous in North America. Ever since PWD was found in Japan, PWD has been continuously spreading to Korea, Taiwan, China, Portugal and Spain. Because B. xylophilus infected trees died within 2 ~ 3 months, the most effective way to control PWD is preventing the translocation of infected trees to other regions. Thus, developing on-site diagnostic methods for identifying B. xylophilus infected tree is utmost important. Even though various cellular and molecular biological techniques were developed to identify B. xylophilus at the laboratory, they had certain limitations to be applied for on-site diagnostic methods. In this presentation, I will overview the recent advances in B. xylophilus detection methods. And then, I will present recent progression for developing on-site diagnostic methods for B. xylophilus made from my laboratory collaboration with Korea Forest Research Institute. The development of on-site diagnosis tool for PWD is one of the most arduous mission to accomplish. Thus, the accomplishment of our mission requires continued interest and support to PWD researches.

• Young Ho Koh(Laboratory of Molecular Neur-Omics, Ilsong Institue of Life Science, Hallym University)