Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Riverside, California » National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Citrus » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #163645
Title: PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF CITRUS LEPROSIS VIRUS GENOME FROM PANAMA AND DEVELOPMENT OF A RAPID DIAGNOSTIC METHOD

Author
item GUERRA, A - UNIV OF FL, LAKE ALFRED
item MANJUNATH, K - UNIV OF FL, GAINESVILLE
item BRLANSKY, R - UNIV OF FL, GAINESVILLE
item HOWD, D - UNIV OF FL, GAINESVILLE
item Lee, Richard

Submitted to: Phytopathology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2004
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Citrus leprosis virus (CiLV) has been known in Brazil since 1930s and has been recently spreading into Central American countries. The disease was first reported from Panama in 2001 and is causing serious damage to its citrus industry. Leprosis was reported from Florida in late 1800s and caused considerable losses in Florida's citrus industry in the 1920s. The disease then mysteriously disappeared and has not been reported in Florida since the 1960s. The recent northward movement of leprosis into the Caribbean area threatens the US citrus industry. The present investigation was undertaken to understand the biology of the virus and develop rapid molecular diagnostic methods. CiLV infected samples were collected from different regions of Panama, and the presence of virus was confirmed in all the samples by electron microscopy. CiLV infected tissue was used to construct a cDNA library. After preliminary screening by PCR, about 300 clones with inserts over 500 bp were sequenced. A contig representing putative CiLV sequence was identified, and the association with leprosis was confirmed by Northern blots. A RT-PCR method was developed for detection of CiLV in infected samples. The results indicated that the method can be employed for detection of leprosis with virus particles in cytoplasm, but not with those in nucleus, indicating that leprosis symptoms are probably caused by two different viruses.