Department of Plant Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai-625021.
*Present address: Department of Botany, The American College, Madurai-625002.
Macrotyloma uniflorum (Lam.) Verdc.) (horsegram) is a quarterly drought resistant crop, native to India. It has dual economic importance as poor man's pulse crop and also as a crop of interest for medicial properties. This crop is much affected by yellow mosaic disease. The causative agent of the disease is a bipartite begomovirus (Horsegram yellow mosaic virus). The molecular characterization of the complete DNA A and B components of the virus has been carried out. (EMBL accession numbers: AJ627904 (DNA A) and AJ627905 (DNA B). Work is in progress towards proving the Koch's postulate by agroinfection of horsegram with the cloned DNA A and B components of the virus. The phylogenetic relationship of this virus with the other legume-infecting viruses of South-East Asia has been analyzed.
