Indian Journal of Virology

Banana is widely grown in the tropic and subtropic region. India being the largest producer of banana contributes 23% of the world's total production. Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is one of the important viruses infecting banana. The virus spreads mainly through infected plant material and insect vectors. In vitro expression strategy has been followed to produce polyclonal antibody for the detection of CMV infections in banana. Coat protein gene of CMV (Maharashtra isolate) has been amplified, cloned into pQE-30 vector and expressed in E. coli M15 cells. The recombinant coat protein was successfully purified and used for raising polyclonal antibodies in rabbit. Antisera reacted with the purified protein as well crud sap from banana samples infected with CMV in ouchterlony double diffusion test. Furthermore, immunocapture RT-PCR was also performed using polyclonal antibody raised against recombinant protein and CMV coat protein gene specific primers.