Amity Institute of Microbial Sciences (AIMS), Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Sector 125, Noida-201303, India.
Pepper or chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is an important spicy crop in most of the Asian countries. The plant has been reported to be infected with a number of viruses from various parts of the world wherever the chilli is grown. During the surveys in 2006–07 various types of symptoms were observed on Capsicum plants from various fields of Uttar Pradesh including leaf curl, mosaic, mottling and stunting. The leaf curling was also associated with stunting, and very few or no fruit formation. The causal virus was found to be mechanically transmissible but with difficulty to Lycopersicon esculentum (mosaic and leaf curling), Petunia hybrida (leaf deformation, vein clearing, shortening of internodes and leaf curling), Nicotiana tabacum cv. Samsun (downward curling) and N. tabacum cv. Bhopali Pakra (stunting and change in the texture of the leaves). For detection and molecular characterization of the causal virus, the degenerate primer pair as described by Senanayake et al. (2007) was used to amplify the causal begomovirus. Total DNA isolated from the young leaves of virus-infected plants using phenol-chloroform method and Tri Reagent (Sigma) was used to for PCR detection. The PCR product ∼ 1.0 kb confirmed the presence of begomovirus in the virus infected chilli plants. From India, two begomoviruses viz. Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV), Chilli leaf curl virus (ChiLCuV), Cotton leaf curl Multan virus (CLCuMV) and Pepper yellow leaf curl Indonesia virus (PepYLCIDV) have been reported to be associated with chilli leaf curl disease Senanayake et al. (2007). Therefore, UP isolate needs further downstream studies for further categorization of the causal virus. The plants showing mosaic and very light mosaic were tested for the presence of various viruses using virus or group specific antibodies. The causal virus was found to be Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) using antibodies procured from Agdia (USA). Total RNA was isolated from healthy and naturally infected Capsicum, as well as from inoculated plants, using TRI Reagent (Sigma) as per the manufacturer's instructions. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed using the CPTALL primer pair (Choi et al., 1999). Amplicons of expected size (∼ 950 bp) were obtained in virus-infected and mechanically inoculated Capsicum plants, while no amplification was observed in healthy Capsicum plants. Thus confirming the presence of CMV with mosaic disease of chilli.
