Virus analysis of indigenous potato germplasm collection*

Indigenous potato germplasm collected from different parts of North India and maintained at Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla was examined to know the type of viruses involved by employing immuno electron microscopy (IEM) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to the selected clones from Chamba, Shimla and Kinnaur districts of Himachal Pradesh (H.P.). Clones from Kinnaur and Shimla showed high degree of degeneration and possessed a high concentration of potato viruses PVX, PVS, PYA, PVY and PLRV while PVM was also detected in a few clones. On the other hand, clones from Chamba district showed a comparatively lower degree of degeneration and possessed PVX, PVS, PVA and PVY; none of them had infection of PLRV and PVM. Clones from the North eastern parts of the country also were highly degenerated and revealed coinfections of PVX, PVS, PVA, PVY and PLRV in high concentrations, a few of them also carried PAMV.