Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Tobacco rattle tobravirus (TRV) and potato mop-top pomovirus (PMTV) are two known
viruses in Sweden which impair the quality of potato tubers by causing spraing. This
experiment aimed at finding the best bait plants (plants that is susceptible to infection)
for acquiring virus particles from soil, and to analyse the acquired viruses by both ELISA
and biotest. The results were finished after 8 weeks with findings that indicate differences
in the ability of acquiring virus particles between the bait plants. Nicotiana clevelandii and
N.debneyi seem to be the best bait plants to use. These plants were able to acquire both plant
viruses in high concentrations. ELISA results also verify that the vector for PMTV,
Spongospora subterranea f.sp. subterranea, and the vector for TRV,
Trichodorus/Paratrichodorus were present in the soil.
Another interesting discovery was that the only positive result of PMTV was found in soil
samples that had been dried for at least two weeks. This could be confirmed by later tests that
were made on a new batch of soil samples.
Five different indicator plants (plants that develop symptoms after inoculated with virus) were
used for the biotest and out of these Chenopodium amaranticolor and C.quinoa seem to be the
best to use because of the clearly visible local lesions that were easy to count. The biotest
results were compared to the ELISA results and the plants that showed local lesions matched
with positive ELISA values but the amount of lesions could not be correlated to high or low
ELISA values. A combination of these techniques could be used in future work to increase the
certainty of the diagnosis.