Microbial Plant Pathogens-Detection and Disease Diagnosis: Viral and
Viruses, with the primitive structural features are capable of causing diseases in all life forms on the earth. With limited morphological characteristics of the virus particles and lack of physiological functions, the need for the development of techniqu
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Microbial Plant Pathogens-Detection and Disease Diagnosis Viral and Viroid Pathogens, Volume 3
P. Narayanasamy Former Professor and Head, Department of Plant Pathology Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India
P. Narayanasamy Grand Parade Apartments 32 D Thilagar Street, R. S. Puram Coimbatore 641 002 India [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-9753-8 e-ISBN 978-90-481-9754-5 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9754-5 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010938430 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover illustration: Peanut bud necrosis (Volume 3) Infected plants exhibit chlorotic ringspots on the young leaves and they show necrosis of the terminal buds later. The plants may be killed, if they are infected in the early stages of growth. (Courtesy of P. Narayanasamy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India) Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Dedicated to the Memory of my Parents for their Love and Affection
Preface
Viruses, although minute in size and primitive in structure, are capable of infecting all life forms from prokaryotic bacteria to highly evolved humans. Occurrence of diseases such as small pox and influenza, now known to be of viral origin, was reported to affect human beings even before the recorded history. However, the viral origin of diseases could be established only during the last decade of the 19th century by the researchers like Iwanowsky and Beijerinck working on tobacco mosaic disease. The controversial status of virus, whether living or nonliving, attracted the attention of not only the plant pathologists, but also biochemists, biophysicists and biotechnologists. Viruses and viroids form distinct groups of obligate parasites and they have to be considered differently, while diagnosing the diseases induced by them, because all steps of the Koch’s postulates cannot be applied to prove them to be the causative agents of newly observed disease(s), as in the case of fungal and bacterial plant pathogens. As the viruses and viroids have only elementary constitutional features and no physiological functions, application of methods based on the biological, morphological and biochemical characteristics may not yield precise results. Immunoassays have been effectively employed for the detection, identification and differentiation of viruses infecting various crops. However, the antigenic properties of the viruses are governed by only a small portion of the viral genome. Hence, the differences in the other segments of the viral genome cannot be detected by the immu
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