Detection of eight viruses infecting greenhouse strawberry in Beijing by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

Abstract:

[Background] Viruses could be disseminated through asexual reproductive materials and severely affect the output and quality of strawberry. The production of virus-free seedling is one of the main methods to control strawberry viral diseases. Therefore, the efficient and sensitive detection of viruses is important for viral disease control. [Objective] To investigate the occurrence of eight important viruses commonly infect greenhouse strawberry in Beijing, the different strawberry plants collected from different districts were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). [Methods] We established a double-antibody sandwich ELISA (DAS-ELISA) method to detect eight viruses. Compared with the negative control, the positive control samples showed expected results in indirect ELISA and double-antibody sandwich ELISA (DAS-ELISA) analyses. Combined?with the symptom observation in the field, DAS-ELISA was used to detect viruses in the greenhouse strawberry samples. Virus infected samples were further verified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and sequence analysis. [Results] The results showed that only strawberry mild yellow edge virus (SMYEV) was detected in strawberry plants collected in Beijing. 8.1% of ‘Benihoppe’ and 2.7% of ‘Tianxiang’ cultivar plants tested could detect the infection by SMYEV, whereas there were no virus detected in other varieties. [Conclusion] This study presents important information and techniques for virus detection and strawberry viral disease management in Beijing area.