Elisa for detection of viruses for seed potato production*

Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was employed on large scale for potato tuber indexing in India for the first time and its efficacy was compared with chloroplast agglutination test for detection of potato viruses PVX, PVY and PVS. Seven thousand three hundred thirty five tubers of seven potato cultivars from three seed producing regions were indexed. ELISA was superior to chloroplast agglutination test by 1.9 times (97.2%), 5.4 times (436.5%) and 3.6 times (264.4%) for detection of PVX, PVY and PVS, respectively. The incidence of PVX, PVY and PVS ranged 3.4 to 20.0; 1.2 to 13.3 and 29.5 to 92.0%, respectively in different cultlvars. The total incidence of these viruses was less in cultivars Kufri Badshah and Kufri Jyoti as compared with Kufri Lalima, Kufri Chandramukhi, Kufri Sindhuri, Kufri Lauvkar and Gulmarg Special. The incidence was higher in the tubers collected from Patna (97.6%) followed by Gwalior (72.4%) and Jalandhar (71.0%).