Crop losses as a result of disease caused by plant-infecting viruses come second only to fungal diseases, but plant viruses are much more difficult to control. Nearly 80 virus species occur on the ICRISAT mandate crops – groundnut, chickpea, pigeonpea, sorghum and pearl millet - resulting in yield loss worth >US$ 700 million per annum. Our research mainly tackles economically important viral diseases occurring on our mandate crops in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) of South and Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Mission

Mitigate the impact of virus diseases on the ICRISAT mandate crops (groundnut, pigeonpea, chickpea, sorghum and pearl millet) for enhancing the crop productivity and reducing the economic hardship on farmers in the semi-arid tropics.

Purpose

To identify and characterize the viral agents involved in disease etiology, develop diagnostic tests and disease management strategies that are appropriate for resource poor farmers in the SAT, and evaluate and implement in collaboration with NARES, with farmers' participation; and help strengthen NARES capacity in applied virology research through training courses and extension programs.

Brief overview of the research activities

The general objective of Virology is to develop knowledge and technology aimed at controlling virus diseases in our mandate crops. Since viruses can be controlled only by prevention (use of healthy seed or resistant cultivars), major emphasis has been placed on the development of technology to diagnose virus and virus-like diseases, and on the development of durable virus-disease-resistant germplasm.

Our research mainly focused on:

• Pigeonpea sterility mosaic virus, groundnut bud necrosis virus, groundnut rosette, Tobacco streak virus, Peanut stripe virus (PStV), Peanut clump virus (PCV), Indian peanut clump virus (IPCV), Peanut mottle virus (PMV) and viruses involved in chickpea stunt and dwarfing, because of their widespread occurrence, endemic nature and debilitating impact on crop yield. In addition to plant-infecting viruses, we also work on viruses infecting insect pests, such as nucleopolyhedroviruses, that are used as viral insecticides for pest control.

Our major activities are:

• Isolation and identification of viral agents involved in the disease etiology.
• Development and deployment technology for virus diagnosis.
• Searching for host plant resistance (conventional and transgenics) and understanding the basis of host resistance to viral diseases.
• Identifying new viral pathogens that may emerge in the ICRISAT mandate crops.
• Developing diagnostic tests for virus detection [serological (ELISA polyclonal and monoclonal antiserum and nucleic acid-based PCR/RT-PCR and nucleic acid hybridization) tests]. Major emphasis is placed on development of techniques that are cheap and convenient for use in developing countries.
• Supporting quarantine testing for evaluation of seed-transmitted viruses and performing virus detection in samples sent to the laboratory from different ICRISAT activities and national programs.
• Conducting training courses for NARS in virus disease diagnosis and detection.
• Application of techniques used in virology to develop procedures that can help other research activities. For instance, the application of immunology for the development of a serological technique (competitive ELISA) for quantitative detection of aflatoxins, fumanosins, ochratoxins, abscisic acid (ABA_ and aflatoxin-adducts in human serum; mimotopes for aflatoxins from phage-display libraries etc.

The basic and fundamental virology work is carried at the Mycotoxicology and Virology Laboratory in Building 301 in the ICRISAT-Patancheru Campus. Requisite facilities for virus isolation, characterization, maintenance and storage of virus cultures, production of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, enzyme conjugates, advanced molecular biology and screening for host plant resistance are available here. In addition, virology research activities, mostly pertaining to host-plant resistance and epidemiology, are carried out at the ICRISAT Centers at Lilongwe, Malawi; Bamako, Mali and Nairobi, Kenya.

Several of our research activities are carried out in collaboration with international and national research institutes situated in Australia, Europe, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Philippines, Thailand, UK, USA, and other nations.

Though major virology activities are included in the Global Theme on Biotechnology, members of the Global Themes on Crop Improvement and Agro-Eco Systems also participate and/or lead activities related to virus disease control.

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For further information contact: Farid Waliyar