SEROLOGICAL TESTS FOR DETECTION OF SUNFLOWER NECROSIS TOSPO VIRUS CAUSING NECROSIS DISEASE OF SUNFLOWER (HELIANTHUS ANNUS L.)

Abstract

India occupies third place to produce oil seeds in the world. India has vast area of about 19 million hectares under oilseed crops In order to formulate management practices for the control of necrosis disease of sunflower; reliable tests are required for its detection. Such tests are lacking in India. Sunflower is widely cultivated in India. Sunflower crop is extensively cultivated in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. Sunflower showed symptom of virus disease characterised by severe mosaic, necrosis of leaves, necrosis along the stems and floral parts, malformation of young leaves, markedly reduced leaves and stunting of plants. Hence, in this study, direct antigen coating-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (DAC-ELISA), Double antibody sandwich-ELISA (DAS-ELISA) and Dot-ELISA tests were evaluated for the detection of sunflower necrosis a tospo virus (SfNV) causing necrosis disease of sunflower in Andhra Pradesh in India. In DAC-ELISA, Sunflower Necrosis Virus was detected up to 0.370μg/mL in purified virus preparation and up to 10-4 dilution in leaf sap extracted from virus infected sunflower leaves. In Dot-ELISA, Sunflower Necrosis Virus was detected up to 0.0370μg/mL in purified virus preparation and up to 10-5 dilution in leaf sap from infected sunflower leaves. Where as in DAS-ELISA the virus was detected up to 370μg/mL and 10-3 dilution in purified virus preparation and in leaf sap extracted from infected sunflower leaves, respectively. Hence, it is concluded that DAC-ELISA and Dot-ELISA were found to be the suitable tests for the detection of Sunflower necrosis virus.