A Rapid and Simple Method for Detecting Tobacco Mosaic Virus in Nicotiana Tabacum by Aqueous Extract

Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a widespread plant virus of the genus Tobamovirus that infects plants, especially tobacco and other members of the family Solanaceae. The infection causes mottling and discoloration on the leaves. In this study we reported a simple and rapid method for detection of TMV based on aqueous extract and agarose gel electrophoresis, and all procedures require 30 minutes. A small amount of tobacco leaves (~10 mg) was ground in sterile water (~100 μL), and the electrophoretic bands of about 6 000 bp in aqueous extract were detected through agarose gel electrophoresis. The Northern-blot analysis targeting TMV-replicase gene showed that the electrophoretic bands was TMV genomic. Therefore, this method is more rapid, simple and economic than those methods reported previously, and can detect the TMV of tobacco plants in 10 minutes. However, the aqueous extract is unstable under room temperature and degraded after 3 h since extraction.