1Division of Plant Quarantine, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi-110 012, India.
2Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-6430, USA.
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.
Seed-transmitted viruses pose an important threat to several crops, besides being easily introduced into new areas when infected seed is planted. Reliable and sensitive detection methodology is an important tool to identify and intercept such introductions. In quarantine, most of the legumes are subjected to mandatory testing for seed-transmitted viruses. These tests generally include a combination of more than one technique viz., grow-out test followed by infectivity test, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, dot immunobinding assay and electron microscopy. Molecular techniques such as reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) are being initiated in virology laboratory at National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi for detecting seed-transmitted viruses. Using RT-PCR, the ability of specific primer pairs to amplify from individual seed samples was evaluated for Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), Bean common mosaic necrosis virus in French bean, Soybean mosaic virus in soybean and Pea seed-borne mosaic virus (PSbMV) in pea. Also, Potyvirus group-specific degenerate primers which has potential in identifying new or unknown potyviruses were used for their detection in RT-PCR. A real-time RT-PCR method was also tested for its application in detecting BCMV and PSbMV in single seed. The use of molecular techniques has special significance in detecting latent infections and the detection of viruses occurring in very low concentration. Also, by using suitable primer pairs, simultaneous detection of different viruses in the seed is possible by multiplex RT-PCR.
