White root rot disease is a type of filamentous fungi that affects hevea brasiliensis, or rubber trees, infecting the roots and causing the tree to whither. At present it can only be identified by visual inspection, and detection rates are low. In response to this problem, Bridgestone has been cooperating with other parties to develop technologies that offer a prompter diagnosis, and the tyre maker now reports it has established a “groundbreaking technique” that can be used to “easily, quickly, and accurately diagnose white root rot disease.”