1National Research Centre for Orchids, Pakyong, Sikkim-737106, India
2Division of Plant athology, Indian Agricultural Rsearch Institute, New Delhi-110012, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the International Conference of Indian Virological Society on “Emerging and Re-emerging viral Diseases of the Tropics and Subtropics” at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, December 11–14, 2007.
Football lily (Scandoxus katharinae) belongs to family Amaryllidaceae, is a native of Africa and Arabian Peninsula. In India, it is commonly grown in nurseries as an ornamental plant and also found naturally in Sikkim and Darjeeling hills. Affected plants show mosaic symptoms in leaves and pale yellow discolouration at leaf margins. Gradually the infected leaves turn necrotic. EM study revealed association of flexuous filamentous particles measuring about 650 nm. In ISEM tests it gets decorated with Carnation latent virus (CLV) antiserum suggesting that the virus belonged to the Carlavirus group. Electron microscopy of ultrathin section revealed the presence of elongated virus particles in infected tissue. No inclusion bodies characteristic of potyvirus infection were observed. Experimental host range of the virus was confined to the family chenopodiaceae. Polyclonal antibodies against the virus have been raised in rabbit and ELISA protocol has also been standardized.
