IDENTIFICATION OF A STRAIN OF PEANUT CHLOROTIC STREAK VIRUS CAUSING CHLOROTIC VEIN BANDING DISEASE OF GROUNDNUT IN INDIA

A virus disease characterized by chlorotic vein banding, chlorotic lin e pattern along the margins or midrib of mature leaflets and chlorotic spots/rings was observed on commercial groundnut crops in Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh with an incidence from 1 % to nearly 60 %. The virus was transmitted by mechanical inoculation in extracts prepared with 0.01 M potassium phosphate buffer, pH 8.0 to 21 species from the Chenopodiaceae, Cruciferae, Leguminosae and Solanaceae. Chenopodium qu inoa was found to be a good local lesion host. The virus was neither s eed-transmitted through 1591 groundnut seeds nor aphid-transmitted by Aphis craccivora, Myzus persicae and Rhopalosiphum maidis either in no n-persistent or semi-persistent manner. The virus remained infective i n buffered tobacco leaf sap at a dilution of 10(-5); in a 10(-1) dilut ion of buffered sap the virus was infective for 2-3 days at 22-29-degr ees-C or when heated to 65-degrees-C for 10 min but not to 70-degrees- C. Clarification treatments with organic solvents with 10 % chloroform was least damaging. The virus was purified from Nicotiana rustica lea ves. Purified virus contained isometric particles of 51 nm in diameter with an electron dense core of 22 nm and two major polypeptides of 76 kDa and 36 kDa. A polyclonal antiserum to this virus was produced. In agar gel double diffusion, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and in e lectro-blot immunoassay tests the virus was related to peanut chloroti c streak virus and not to cauliflower mosaic, figwort mosaic and soybe an chlorotic mottle viruses.