2016 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 39-47
The Genebank Project at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) is working to conserve and promote agrobiological genetic resources. The Microorganism section of the Genebank collects, characterizes, preserves, and distributes microorganism genetic resources such as fungi, bacteria, and plant viruses. These resources, which are assigned descriptors called MAFF numbers, totaled about 32,500 strains as of 2016. Plant virus strains in the Microorganism section have been classified on the basis of scientific data from depositors and their experimental characterization in comparison with reports of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. To improve the convenience of use and reliability of virus strains, we are working on determining and providing the base sequences of the capsid/coat protein (CP) genes of virus strains. Here, we demonstrate the successful use of over 60 gene-specific primer pairs for sequence definition of viral CP genes, as well as the experimental conditions used for RT-PCR.
By using these primer pairs we were able to completely amplify the CP genes of the target virus strains. We also report several virus strains belonging to Necrovirus, Tobamovirus, and Fabavirus that were re-identified on the basis of their CP gene sequences.
