Diagnosis and Detection of Viruses Infecting ICRISAT Mandate Crops

Methods for the diagnosis and detection of plant viruses are described in this manual with particular emphasis on detection of important virus diseases of ICRISAT mandate crops. These include protein-based (ELISA and Western immunoblotting) and nucleic acid-based (PCR, RT-PCR and dot-blot hybridization) techniques, and methods for studying plant-virus vector interactions. Though the technology may appear complicated to beginners, every effort has been made to simplify the procedures by providing technical details in a step-wise manner, with description of underlying principles. The techniques described are applicable for the detection of any plant virus in general, albeit suitable modifications made to optimize the performance as per the needs