DETECTION OF TOBACCO RATTLE VIRUS IN TUBERS EXHIBITING SYMPTOMS OF CORKY RINGSPOT BY POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

Tobacco rattle virus (TRV)-specific products were obtained by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of nucleic acid extra cts prepared from tubers exhibiting symptoms of corky ringspot (CRS) d isease, Viral origin of amplification products was confirmed by hybrid ization of PCR products with a nonradioactively-labeled complementary DNA probe prepared from purified TRV RNA. Results suggest that TRV is not uniformly distributed in CRS-affected tubers and appears to be in low concentration in tuber tissue.