Characterization of chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus (CpCDV) associated with chickpea stunt disease

Stunt disease is becoming the major yield limiting factors for the chickpea production and its occurrence has been reported form different states of India. The symptoms of stunt disease caused by chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus are difficult to distinguish Mastrevirus-infected plant from other disease-causing pathogens. Therefore, it's an imperative for precise detection of causal agent of the disease for development of management strategy against chickpea stunt.

Survey for the incidence of stunt disease with most characteristic symptoms of leaf reddening and yellow orange typical to Mastrevirus infection was conducted in chickpea fields. The causal agent of the stunt was characterized and described through conventional and virus-specific PCR-based diagnostic technique.

The study revealed that maximum of 60% of the chickpea stunt was observed in three districts of Uttar Pradesh with an average incidence of 12.90%. The PCR amplification using CpCDV-specific primers encoding coat protein resulted in an expected amplicon size of 350 bp. The comparison of the partial coat protein sequence of virus revealed that maximum homology of 98.70% with previously identified chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus (CpCDV) strains, indicating that CpCDV associated with the chickpea stunt. Based on molecular characterization, chickpea stunt disease caused by Chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus (ssDNA), belongs to the genus Mastrevirus which is also responsible for the lentil stunt disease.