A Comparison of Sensitive and Specific Methods for the Detection of Lily Mottle Virus in Lily Plants

The nucleotide sequence of the 3¢-terminal region of a potyvirus from lily in Miyagi, Japan, exhibited 96.5% homology in the CP gene and 98.9% homology in deduced amino acid sequence to an isolate of Lily mottle virus (LMoV) from the Netherlands. Dilution end-points were compared for the detection of LMoV in lily by an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; an assay with immunocapture, reverse transcrip- tion (RT) and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR); and an assay with RT and PCR using total RNA extracted from infected plant material. The RT-PCR assay with total RNA was the most sensitive assay which, with primers based on the nucleotide sequence information, was able to distinguish between infection by LMoV and Tulip breaking virus, another potyvirus that can infect lily.