Disease incidence and molecular indexing of viruses infecting King chilli (Capsicum chinense Jacq) in North East India

Abstract

A survey was conducted in King chilli growing areas of four Northeast states of India namely, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya for virus disease incidence particularly Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV) and Chilli leaf curl virus (ChiLCV). The virus disease incidence based on symptomatology ranged from 15 to 65% with highest incidence recorded in Golaghat district of Assam and lowest in the Ukhrul district of Manipur. The polymerase chain reaction based detection using coat protein gene specific primers for the three viruses revealed the presence of CMV and ChiVMV in all the four states whereas ChiLCV was recorded only in one location from Assam. In two of the samples collected for CMV and ChiVMV, mixed infection of the two viruses was confirmed. Based on molecular method based detection, the incidence of CMV infection in King chilli among all the samples tested for the virus was 32.5% whereas it was 25.97% for ChiVMV.