PCR detection of whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses
A PCR technique using degenerate primers has been developed in UK, in order to detect a range of whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses in plants and insects, including some geminiviruses which have been less well characterized. With this method it was possible to detect the following viruses in infected leaves: Kenyan type strain of African cassava mosaic geminivirus, a Ugandan isolate of African cassava mosaic geminivirus, an isolate of Indian cassava mosaic geminivirus, an isolate of East Africa cassava mosaic geminivirus from Madagascar, Abutilon mosaic geminivirus, euphorbia mosaic geminivirus, cowpea golden mosaic geminivirus from Nigeria, okra leaf curl geminivirus from Ivory Coast, an isolate of Indian tomato leaf curl geminivirus, tomato yellow leaf curl geminivirus isolates from Senegal, Nigeria, Sicily and Sardinia, and an uncharacterized pepper geminivirus from Belize. Individual viruses could then be distinguished by the patterns of DNA fragments obtained by the action of restriction endonucleases on the PCR products. For tomato geminiviruses, the patterns obtained for the tomato yellow leaf curl isolates from European origin were similar, whereas the other three viruses (TYLCV from Nigeria and Senegal, Indian tomato leaf curl geminivirus) gave different patterns (different from each other and from European viruses). With this method, it was also possible to detect geminiviruses in single viruliferous whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci biotype B = B. argentifolii).
Sources
Deng, D.; McGrath, P.F.; Robinson, D.J.; Harrison, B.D (1994) Detection and differentiation of whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses in plants and vector insects by the polymerase chain reaction with degenerate primers.
Annals of Applied Biology, 125 (2), 327-336.