1Div Plant Pathology, Sugarcane Research Station, Kunraghat −273 008, India.
2Dean Dayal Upadhya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur-273 009, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the XVIII National Conference of Indian Virological Society at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, December 11–13, 2008.
The experiment was carried out in twenty plants through tissue culture two commercial varieties CoLK 8102 and CoJ 83, and was used for the elimination of SCMV and SCSMV. Twenty cane tops of the two tested varieties of sugarcane infected with SCMV and SCSMV were used for tissue culture. Young leaf rolls about 5 mm thick and apical meristem about 0.2 to 1.0 mm were cultured in the dark on callus induction medium. Embryogenic callus was sub cultured at monthly intervals and was regenerated on a medium devoid of 2, 4-D. To determine the minimum number of callus culture required for the elimination of the virus, plantlets were regenerated at each subculture. In our experiments both the test viruses were eliminated from the susceptible cultivars, CoLK 8102 and CoJ 83. Virus free plants were produced within six months using meristem tip and leaf roll callus. Detection of the virus was carried out by RT-PCR using primer pairs SCMV- F3, SCMV-R3 and SCSMV-ST2, SCSMVP1 through RT-PCR assays. No virus could be detected in regenerated plants of both the sugarcane varieties transferred to the glasshouse after they were checked at monthly intervals over a period of six months, thus confirming the elimination of SCMV and SCSMV. The callus culture strategy can be applied to mosaic infected exotic varieties of sugarcane in India to test the possibility of eliminating SCMV and SCSMV.
