Towards universal detection of <i>Luteoviridae</i>

Abstract

Luteoviridae is a plant virus family of 26 species which causes yield losses in cereals potatoes and other economically important crops worldwide Accurate detection is an important component of controlling the spread of luteoviruses and reducing yield losses PCRbased detection is often the method of choice for Luteoviridae as it is more sensitive than serological methods which frequently fail to detect infection due to the low concentration of luteoviruses in plants Since the currently available luteovirus primers are mostly speciesspecific and work under different PCR conditions universal primers are desirable Seven primers were tested that were designed to target the most conserved regions of the Luteoviridae genomes and that possess high homology to over 75 of Luteoviridae species Thirty luteovirus isolates representing 15 species were obtained from New Zealand and overseas these included all five species from the Luteovirus genus eight of the nine species from the Polerovirus genus (except CYDV RPS) PEMV1 (the only species from the Enamovirus genus) and CtRLV (which is not assigned to a genus) Between them the three combinations of primers detected all 13 of the Luteovirus and Polerovirus species tested