Division of Plant Pathology, Sugarcane Research Station, Gorakhpur-273008, UP, India.
*E-mail: deepti_21gkp@rediffmail.com.
Seventeen sugarcane leaf samples exhibiting mosaic symptoms from six sugarcane growing states of India(Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu) were characterized through RT-PCR assays with specific designed primer for Sugarcane mosaic virus, SCMV (F3 and R3) and Sugarcane streak mosaic virus, SCSMV(ST2 and P1). SCMV was detected by RT-PCR in 3 sugarcane varieties. The expected 0.9 kbp SCMV fragment was amplified by RT-PCR with the SCMV F3 (5’-TTTYCACCAAGCTGGAA-3’) and SCMV R3 (5’-AGCTGTGTGTCTGTCTGTATTCTC-3’) primers only with two mosaic samples from Kerala and Punjab (CoC 671 and CoJ 85). However, ca 0.5 kbp fragment was amplified from eleven of the samples out of seventeen tested using primers SCSMV-ST2 (5’-CGTATCGYTACTATTCG-3’) and SCSMV-P1 (5’-CTGTAGGCACTGGGTCAATCCTCA-3’). RT-PCR reactions were negative with both primers pairs in SC 252/01, Co 7717 (Haryana) and CoG93077 (Andhra Pradesh). Our results suggest widespread existence of SCSMV in India in comparison to the SCMV. Interestingly, mixed infection of SCMV and SCSMV was also detected in sugarcane mosaic infected leaf samples from Kerala in var. CoC 671 and Punjab in var.CoJ85. The cloning and sequencing of the PCR amplified products are in progress to check further the phylogenetic relationships among the tested sugarcane mosaic isolates.
