Plant Virology Lab, Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR), Palampur-176 061, 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.
Among apple viruses Apple mosaic virus (ApMV) is one of the oldest known viruses. Surveys were conducted in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Himachal Pradesh (HP), India, to determine presence of the virus. Symptomatic leaf samples, buds and bark were collected during spring (March-April) and late summer (late July-September) seasons. DAS-ELISA revealed presence of ApMV in 10 samples from 3 locations in HP and one location from J&K. Results were further confirmed by slot blot hybridization in samples from apple and plum from J&K. The sequence of an amplicon produced by RT-PCR using a virus specific primer confirmed the ELISA results for the cultivar Golden delicious. Comparison of sequenced amplicon with ten complete available sequences of ApMV-CP (from apple) at amino acid level revealed maximum (96%) and minimum (51%) sequence homology to the Korean (AY125977) and Spanish (U038570) isolates respectively. The phylogenetic analysis with 10 complete ApMV-CP isolated from apple plants showed similar phylogeny as the bootstrap values were not significant. However, analysis using ApMV-CPs amplified from different hosts revealed that the Indian apple ApMV-CP clustered with Czech pear-ApMV-CP isolates. This study confirms presence of ApMV at molecular level in India and reveals sequence information.
