METHOD OF EXAMINING SOIL POLLUTION AND/OR WATER POLLUTION

摘要

It is intended to provide a method by which it can be conveniently examined whether or not soil under a plan of the cultivation of a crop therein or its water source is polluted with a pollutant source exerting undesirable effects on the growth of the crop. A method of examining soil pollution and/or water pollution which comprises: 1) planting a test plant in the soil to be examined or feeding water to be examined to the test plant and then growing the plant for 1 to 14 days; 2) collecting nucleic acids from a tissue of the thus grown test plant; 3) and confirming the expression of a gene originating in the test plant which shows a change in the expression caused by the contact of a pollutant source contained in the soil and/or water with the test plant. The above-described method has merits such that it is unnecessary to isolate the test specimen from a pollutant source such as a microorganism, it is unnecessary to certify the infection with an isolated microorganism or the like by using an additional method, a number of specimens can be examined within a short period of time, both of infectivity and harmfulness can be examined by a single procedure and so on. Since the examination is conducted on the basis of the presence/absence of the expression of a specific gene, no skilled technique such as microscopic observation is required. Furthermore, the examination can be conducted at a high reliability.