DETECTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF AN EGYPTIAN ISOLATE OF CUCUMBER MOSAIC VIRUS (CMV) AFFECTING SUGARBEET USING NON-RADIOACTIVE RNA PROBE

Abstract

Detection and identification of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) RNA was carried out from sugar
beet leaves by using reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The coat protein
gene (RNA 3) was amplified selectively by using cucumovirus-specific coat protein gene primers.
No DNA product of any length was produced when healthy leaves or tobacco mosaic virus RNA
was used as templates. Dot-blot hybridization using CMV-CP/RNA probe also confirmed the
presence of CMV genome in sugarbeet-infected tissues. The double-stranded PCR product (650 bp)
was cloned into pGEM-T-Easy vector and the insert was partially sequenced. The multiple
nucleotide sequence alignment of the CMV/CP-EG displayed 75 % homology with CMV subgroup
II published nucleotide sequences of Fny-CMV, NT9-CMV, Q-CMV and Trk7-CMV strains.