Plant Virus Laboratory and Biotechnology Unit, Division of Crop Protection, Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, Kolkata-700120, 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.
Yellow vein disease of Croton bonplanadianum is very frequently observed in Indian sub-continent and was found to be associated with Begomovirus. Recently, though the association of DNA â was reported from Pakistan but no such information from India is available. In the present investigation, total nucleic acid was obtained from the symptomatic leaves of croton plant and the association of Begomovirus has been determined by southern hybridisation using a radio labelled DNA-A probe to Mesta yellow vein mosaic virus (MeYVMV) (EF428256). Expected 0.77 kb and 1.3 kb PCR amplicons were obtained with the primers designed to the coat protein of Bhendi yellow vein mosaic virus and universal DNA â primers respectively from the DNA of symptomatic plants only. Both the PCR products were cloned and sequenced (EF597245 and EF597246). The coat protein gene of the present isolate shared highest (97.0%) nucleotide sequence identity with east Indian isolate of MeYVMV (EF428256) followed by Tobacco leaf curl karnataka virus (AY007616, 92.9%) and Croton yellow vein virus reported from India (AJ507777, 92.8%). The sequence of present DNA â isolate shared 87% nucleotide sequence identity with the DNA â reported from Pakistan (Accession No. AM410551) and no other DNA â sequence reported so far shared significant sequence identity. Thus, this is the first report of DNA â associated with croton yellow vein disease in India. The high similarity of the sequence of coat protein with that of the MeYVMV indicated that croton may serve as alternate host of MeYVMV in eastern India.
