1Unit of Plant Virology, Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012.
2Division of Plant Pathology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641003.
Abstracts of Research Papers Presented during the National Symposium of Indian Virological Society at Unit of Plant Virology, Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, October 14–1.
Groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV) has emerged as a major constraint to the production of economically important leguminous and solanaceous crops in India. Here we report the natural infection of GBNV on cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) and sem (Lablab purpureus) in southern part of Indian subcontinent. Necrosis disease affected cotton and sem samples collected from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Experimental farm, Coimbatore were subjected to immuno-and DNA-based assays. Both cotton and sem samples reacted with polyclonal antiserum directed against nucleocapsid protein (NP) of GBNV, suggesting the association of tospovirus antigenically related to GBNV. To identify the genus Tospovirus, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was carried out. Using the primers pair (5’ATGTCTAACGT(C/T)AAGCA(A/G) CTC 3′ and 5’TTACAATTCCAGCGAAG GACC 3′) derived from the conserved sequences of GBNV and Watermelon silver mottle virus, the NP gene was amplified, cloned and sequenced. The sequenced region in both the isolates contained a single open reading frame of 831 nucleotides that could potentially code for a protein of 276 amino acid. The nucleotide sequence data of the NP genes of cotton and sem tospovirus were submitted to the Gene Bank under accession numbers AY426317 and AY426318 respectively. Comparative sequences analysis revealed that the cotton and sem tospovirus shared 95–96% amino acid sequence identity with GBNV (type isolate), suggesting that the cotton and sem tospovirus should be regarded variants of GBNV.
