PROPERTIES OF VIRUS ISOLATES FROM SACCHARUM SPP. CAUSING MOSAIC IN SUGARCANE IN PARANÁ AND SÃO PAULO STATES, BRAZIL

ABSTRACT

Viruses associated with sugarcane mosaic are disseminated in all sugarcane producing areas, and also may infect maize, sorghum and other gramineous plants. The objective of this study was to determine some properties of two virus isolates causing mosaic in the sugarcane clone RB925268 and RB945950, from the state of Paraná, compared to those of isolates from sugarcane varieties RB72454 and SP86-155 from the state of São Paulo. Brazil. The symptom severity and the time of their appearance differed for each isolate in the inoculated plants. RT-PCR reactions with SCMV specific primers allowed for the amplification of 900-bp fragments of the virus coat protein open reading frame (ORF). The restriction fragment length polymorphism pattern (RFLP) obtained with HinfI treatment of the RT-PCR products revealed nucleotide sequence variations indicating there could be different SCMV strains among these isolates.

KEY WORDS
SCMV; Potyvirus ; RT-PCR