Author：Ying-Huey Cheng^1,5, Chin-Chih Chen², Chien-Ming Chou³, Ting-Chin Deng⁴

Abstrct：

    Plant viruses cause major losses to several agricultural and horticultural crops around the world. Unlike bacterium and fungus pathogens, there are no chemical methods available to control viruses and, consequently, the current measures rely on resistant breeding, healthy seedlings and control insect vectors to manage the viral diseases. Diagnostic methods for detection and identification of viruses are not reliable based only by symptomatology since many factors may affect the appearance of visible symptoms so that it is necessary to apply some more sensitive techniques to diagnosis or identify viral diseases. The first technology used to diagnose and identify plant viruses is bioassay, followed by electron microscopy. In the late 50's, scientists began to use serological methods for the identification and diagnosis of viral disease, still were the major technology for virus detection. In addition to the diagnostic methods performed by antibodies, nucleic acids methods have also been prevalent in recent years. It is expected that more detection methods will be developed in the future so that virus diagnosis and identification is no longer a complicated task. These advances will help to ensure that plant quarantine, disease-resistant breeding and disease management are implemented accurately and essential for sustainable agricultural development.

Key words：Virus, Serological methods, Nucleic acids methods

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¹ Associate Researcher, Plant Pathology Division, TARI, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
² Assistant Researcher, Plant Pathology Division, TARI, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
³ Assistant Researcher, Plant Pathology Division, TARI, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
⁴ Researcher, Plant Pathology Division, TARI, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC.
⁵ Corresponding author, e-mail: yhcheng@tari.gov.tw; Tel:886-4-23317517.

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