Tobacco streak virus: an emerging threat to cotton cultivation in India

Tobacco streak virus (TSV), inciting cotton necrosis, exhibits multifarious symptoms. Common types of symptoms include, purplish brown, necrotic lesions in the leaves, squares, and petioles. Telangana (India) had the highest incidence of TSV (51.11 PDI - hybrid RCH659), among the surveyed locations including, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra states of India. Environmental factors greatly influenced the establishment of TSV in cotton. Minimum temperature (22.81 °C), relative humidity (81.42%), and leaf wetness (23.94 h) favoured maximum TSV incidence with a mean PDI of 30.68 at Annur, (Tamil Nadu, India). Serological assay through DAC-ELISA confirmed the presence of TSV in cotton samples expressing necrosis symptoms. Bioassay revealed that Chenopodium amaranticolor and Chenopodium quinoa are excellent indicator host plants with high virus titres. Further, molecular characterization revealed the conserved nature of the coat protein gene, among the TSV isolates infecting cotton in four different states (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra).