Early detection of cacao swollen shoot virus using the polymerase chain reaction

A polymerase chain reaction assay was developed which allows early detectio n of cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV) in DNA extracts from cacao plantlets agroinoculated with the Togolese isolate Agou 1. The primers used were deri ved from badnavirus conserved sequences and nucleic acid was extracted with the Plant DNeasy(R); extraction kit (Qiagen). CSSV genome was detectable b etween 6 and 20 days after inoculation. The first leaf symptoms appeared af ter 4 weeks and the first shoot swelling symptoms after 8 weeks. (C) 2001 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.