COMPARISON OF METHODS FOR DETECTION OF POSPIVIROIDS INFECTING SOLANACEAE

Since the end of the 1980s, new pospiviroids such as Tomato chlorotic dwarf viroid (TCDVd) and Columnea latent viroid (CLVd) have emerged in the European territory. Often they are latent on ornamental Solanaceae, which become reservoirs of these pathogens and facilitate their spread. The method used at the plant health laboratory at Anses aims to detect PSTVd and TCDVd using RT-PCR. To estimate the presence of the other viroids on Solanaceae, different methods were evaluated based on two techniques of end-point RT-PCR and one technique of real-time RT-PCR towards a panel of target samples (pospiviroids) and non-target samples (Solanaceae and viruses). The criteria of relative sensitivity, relative specificity, repeatability and reproducibility allowed a scheme to be elaborated for detection of pospiviroids including confirmation by genetic characterization.