1Department of Virology, Sri Venkateswara, University, Tirupati-517502, Andhra Pradesh.
2Banana research station, ANGRAU, Kovvur-534350, West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh.
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.
A virus causing conspicuous dark purple streaks on the inflorescence bracts, purple colored spindle streaks on petioles and pseudostem, and occasional interveinal chlorotic streaks on leaves of banana cv. Kovvur bontha (ABB) in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh has been initially identified as a potyvirus mainly based on virion coat protein properties. Total RNA from infected banana leaf (100 mg) was isolated by using RNA isolation kit (Qiagen) and cDNA was synthesized using primer OligodT. The entire coat protein (CP)-region of this virus isolate was amplified by PCR using forward 5’TCTG GAAC GGAG TCA AC3’and reverse 5’TAAG AATT CATT TATT CATG TTT3’ primers designed using software OLIGO 6 based on the sequence of Philippine (P1) isolate of Banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV) that belongs to the genus Potyvirus, family Potyviridae, cloned into pGEM-Teasy vector and sequenced (AY953427). The sequence comparisons of the coat protein gene using software Bio-edit revealed that the Andhra Pradesh isolate has 80.3 to 83.8 and 95.6 to 98 percent homology with different isolates of BBrMV (Coimbatore, I1, I2, TH1, CdM, P3, I3, VT1, P1, P2 and WS1) at the nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. It is found to be closely related to Coimbatore and I1 isolates of India and identified as BBrMV-AP1 strain.
