Chapter 5. Diagnostic protocols for MCMV and SCMV

Early and accurate detection of plant viruses is important in surveillance, seed multiplication, and seed exchange. Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) infection may be difficult to diagnose based on symptoms alone as some of them (stunting, chlorosis) resemble those caused by nutrient deficiencies, moisture stress or other maize-infecting viruses like maize mosaic virus, maize streak virus and maize stripe virus. There are several diagnostic tools that are available for detection of MCMV and sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV). The most reliable methods for detecting MCMV in host tissues include ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), immunostrips, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In this chapter, we present several validated MCMV and SCMV detection methods and suggest their point of use depending on the objective.