Abstracts of the papers presented at the 16th Annual Convention and International Symposium of Indian Virological Society on “Management of Vector-Borne Viruses” at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru-502324, Hyderabad, India, February 7–10, 2006.
Chilli commonly known as hot pepper was introduced into India from Brazil in the 16th century by the Portuguese. India is a major producer, consumer and exporter of chilli but its production is badly hampered due to viral diseases. An exhaustive survey of chilli growing areas viz. Faizabad, Gorakhpur, Deoria and Varansai of eastern U.P. during 2003–2004 revealed that the maximum incidence of viral diseases was found in Gorakhpur district in the month of November (88.34%) followed by Faizabad (75.93%), Deoria (48.52%) and in Varanasi dist4rict (35.11%). Chilli plants showing severe symptoms in the form of mosaic mottling and necrosis of leaves and buds were collected from fields and brought to the laboratory for the identification of causal virus(es). Extracts from the field samples reacted positively only with polyclonal antiserum raised against coat protein (CP) of Tobacco streak virus in DAC-ELISA (A 405 nm: 0.24–0.57). The identity of the causal virus was further confirmed by RT-PCR and sequence analysis. The virus infecting chilli shared maximum identity both at nucleotide (98–99%) and amino acid (98%) levels with the corresponding region of TSV. The virus infecting chilli was found to be a strain of TSV and was designated as TSV-CH.
