V. K. Baranwal

Indian Agricultural Research Institute | IARI · Division of Plant Pathology

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) based virome analyses of mRNA and sRNA have recently become a routine approach for reliable detection of plant viruses and viroids. In the present study we identified the viral/viroidal spectrum of several Indian grapevine cultivars and reconstructed their whole genomes using the publically available mRNAome and sRN...

Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) is a rapid, isothermal amplification method with high specificity and sensitivity. In this study, an assay was developed and evaluated for the detection of banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) in infected banana plants. Three oligonucleotide primer pairs were designed from the replicase initiator protein gene se...

Two antiviral glycoproteins, active against mechanical transmission of two tobamoviruses, tobacco mosaic virus and sunnhemp rosette virus, and citrus ring spot virus (ungrouped), were purified from the dried leaves of Celosia cristata. These proteins, called CCP-25 and CCP-27, have M(r) 25 and 27 kDa, respectively. Their concentration was found to...

In April 2023, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum Negarnaviricota was amended and emended. The phylum was expanded by one new family, 14 new genera, and 140 new species. Two genera and 538 species were renamed. One species was moved, and four were abolished...

Cowpea mild mottle virus (CPMMV), a carlavirus nonpersistently transmitted by whiteflies, is an emerging and economically important virus of soybean. The present study aimed to identify soybean genotypes resistant to CPMMV through mechanical inoculation‐based phenotyping and marker trait association using gene‐specific and simple‐sequence repeat (S...

Secoviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses that infect plants. In the present study, we identified 61 putative novel secoviral genomes in various plant species by mining publicly available plant transcriptome data. These viral sequences represent the genomes of 13 monopartite and 48 bipartite secovirids. The genome sequences of 52 secovirids were...

The present study of transmission of apple necrotic mosaic virus (ApNMV) in mixed infection with apple mosaic virus (ApMV) associated with mosaic disease of apple was conducted through cleft grafting and T-budding. Eight and three rootstocks were used for grafting and budding respectively with scion wood from ApMV and ApNMV infected apple cultivar...

Rapid, isothermal detection is possible using recombinase polymerase amplification assay (RPA) offering great specificity plus sensitivity. An RPA assay was standardized and evaluated to detect four viroids using RNA from infected grapevine plants. From the sequences of the whole genome of four viroids, four pairs of oligonucleotide primers were cr...

Grapevine is an important fruit crop cultivated in temperate, subtropical and tropical conditions in India. The maximum share in area, production, and productivity of grapes is governed by four states viz. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The sudden and drastic changes in climatic conditions and the emergence of diseases have...

Grapevine is an important fruit crop cultivated in temperate, subtropical and tropical conditions in India. The maximum share in area, production, and productivity of grapes is governed by four states viz. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The sudden and drastic changes in climatic conditions and the emergence of diseases have...

Citrus is an economically important fruit crop, belongs to family Rutaceae, cultivated commercially in over 130 countries, which holds a leading profitable position in the international market. The most important citrus varieties are mandarins, oranges, lemons, sweet limes, grapefruits and pomelos. Citrus yellow vein clearing virus (CYVCV) is an im...

Calanthe mild mosaic virus (CalMMV) infecting orchids is an important potyvirus which is known to cause mild leaf mosaic and flower colour-breaking symptoms in Calanthe and other orchid plants. The present study reports the production of polyclonal antibodies against CalMMV using bacterially expressed recombinant coat protein as immunogen, which in...

Plant viruses deprive the host due to their replication in the infected cells by hijacking the host machinery and thereby affecting the quality and quantity of economic produce. In recent years, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies are widely adopted for plant viral detection as it facilitates identification of novel viruses and multiple i...

In the years 2021 and 2022, lettuce plants showing blistering, chlorosis, mosaic, rosetting/ excess proliferation, and stunting symptoms were subjected to leaf-dip transmission electron microscopy, RT-PCR followed by sequence analysis and bio-assay to unfold the identity of associated virus(es). The association of long filamentous virions (~ 850 nm...

Secoviridae family contains single stranded RNA genome-containing viruses that infect plants. In the present study, we mined publicly available plant transcriptomes and identi ed sixty-one putative novel secoviral sequences in various plant species ranging from bryophytes to trees, which increased the known secoviral diversity by approximately 0.5-...

Coriander is a herbaceous spice and condiment crop also known for its medicinal properties. The present study identified two putative novel deltapartitiviruses and an enamovirus tentatively named as Coriandrum sativum deltapartitivirus 1, 2 (CsDPV1, 2) and Coriandrum sativum enamovirus (CsEV) in the publicly available transcriptome-assembled contig...

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is a valuable fruit crop known to be infected by more than 80 viruses and viroidal pathogens globally. In view of absence of indexing system for viruses and lack of information on viruses and viroids in grafted grapevine nursery plants in India, high throughput sequencing (HTS) based virome analysis of four libraries f...

The present study reports the complete genome of a novel monopartite begomovirus, named tentatively as "Citharexylum leaf curl virus" (CitLCuV), associated with leaf curl disease of Citharexylum spinosum in India. CitLCuV genome (2,767 nucleotide) contained the typical genome organization of Old World begomoviruses and shared the maximum nucleotide...

Grapevine leafroll-associated virus-3 (GLRaV-3) is a viral pathogen of grapevine leafroll disease (GLD) complex, responsible for debilitating viticulture across the globe. The only available options for management of this important virus are vector control and selection of clean plant propagating materials. To detect this virus in planting material...

Apple mosaic is widely distributed disease throughout the apple growing regions leading to the major adverse effects both qualitatively and quantitatively. Earlier the apple mosaic virus-ApMV was regarded as the only causal agent of the disease, but recently a novel virus apple necrotic mosaic virus-ApNMV have been reported as the causal pathogen f...

One of the most pervasive plant viruses, the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Bromoviridae: Cucumovirus, infects a variety of plants worldwide and significantly af- fects production quality and quantity. Viral infection exhibiting severe mosaic and stunting symptoms in plants infected with turnip mosaic virus was observed in ex- perimental fields in...

Gymnema sylvestre is a tropical climber species that is widely used in traditional medicine since ages. In the present study, the transcriptome datasets of G. sylvestre available in public domain were screened for the presence of novel plant viral sequences and a putative novel virus tentatively named as Gymnema sylvestre virus 1 (GysV1) was identi...

Cowpea mild mottle virus (CPMMV), a whitefly and seed transmitted carla virus, is an emerging soybean disease in India and many tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia. This virus causes significant yield and quality losses under field conditions. The utilization of resistant varieties is the best strategy to manage the losses caused by...

Plantago ovata is a medicinally important herb and belongs to the family Plantaginaceae. In the present study, we unveiled the viral spectrum of Plantago ovata, which was previously unexplored. Using the public domain RNA-seq dataset, a novel member of the Alphaendornavirus genus, provisionally named Plantgo ovata alphaen-dornavirus (PoEV) was disc...

Geminiviruses are known to infect several fields and horticultural crops around the globe. Grapevine geminivirus A (GGVA) was reported in the United States in 2017, and since then, it has been reported in several countries. The complete genome recovered through high-throughput sequencing (HTS)-based virome analysis in Indian grapevine cultivars had...

Coriander is a herbaceous spice and condiment crop also known for its medicinal properties. The present study identified two putative novel deltapartitiviruses and an enamovirus tentatively named as Coriandrum sativum deltapartitivirus 1, 2 (CsDPV1, 2) and Coriandrum sativum enamovirus (CsEV) in the publicly available transcriptome-assembled contig...

Leek yellow stripe virus (LYSV) is one of the most important potyviruses, associated with garlic throughout the world, including India. LYSV causes stunting and yellow streaks in garlic and leek leaves and with other coinfecting viruses leading to severe symptom expression and yield reduction. In this study, we have made the first reported attempt...

Huanglongbing (HLB) caused by three species of proteobacterium ‘Candidatus Liberibacter’ is an enormously destructive disease of citrus crops worldwide. ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas)’ causes HLB in Asian countries. Its association with diferent citrus cultivars from varied locations of Western and North-Eastern India was explored in th...

Waikaviruses (family: Secoviridae) are monopartite, positive sense, single-stranded RNA viruses that cause economically important diseases in plants. Despite their importance, waikaviruses are poorly understood and only ten members are currently recognized. In the present study on Sequence Read Archive (SRA)-based data-driven virus discovery (DDVD)...

Chilli is infected by at least 65 viruses globally, with a mixed infection of multiple viruses leading to severe losses being a common occurrence. A simple diagnostic procedure that can identify multiple viruses at once is required to track their spread, initiate management measures and manage them using virus-free planting supplies. The present st...

During the year 2020–2021, a disease syndrome very commonly observed in railway creepers (Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet) was taken into consideration from Gorakhpur Province (UP East region). Whitefly, a common vector for plant-related viral diseases was observed for wide transmission of disease. DNA from 17 infected leaf samples was isolated and anal...

Prosopis cineraria Druce (khejri), a member of the Fabaceae family, is an essential leguminous plant and agri-horticultural crop, which helps to protect the ecology of desert and semi-arid areas. Using the public domain RNA-seq dataset, we aimed to reveal the viral spectrum of khejri, which is still unexplored. Following quality control, 111,497 co...

Gymnema sylvestre is a tropical climber species that is widely used in traditional medicine since ages. In the present study, the transcriptome datasets of G. sylvestre available in public domain were screened for the presence of novel plant viral sequences and a putative novel virus tentatively named as Gymnema sylvestre virus 1 (GysV1) was identi...

Gymnema sylvestre is a tropical climber species that is widely used in traditional medicine since ages. In the present study, the transcriptome datasets of G. sylvestre available in public domain were screened for the presence of novel plant viral sequences and a putative novel virus tentatively named as Gymnema sylvestre virus 1 (GysV1) was identi...

The concurrent reports on emergence of stunting disease of rice across the Northwest Indian rice growing areas attracted attention for elucidating its etiology. Surveys of different rice fields recorded an incidence of stunting disease in the range of 1-20% in the affected fields. A systematic investigation employing three independent methods was u...

Plant amalgaviruses are monopartite, double-stranded RNA viruses, capable of vertical transmission through seeds. An attempt to revisit plant transcriptome-assembled contigs for amalgaviral sequences identified 40 putative novel amalgaviruses in 35 plant species, nearly doubling the number of plant amalgaviruses. Of the 35 plant species, 33 are rep...

Secoviruses are mono-/bipartite plant-infecting, icosahedral RNA viruses that incite economically important diseases in plants. In the present study, nine secoviruses tentatively named as Ananas comosus secovirus (AcSV), Artocarpus altilis secovirus (AaSV), Boehmeria nivea secovirus (BnSV), Gynostemma pentaphyllum secovirus (GpSV), Orobanche cernua...

Plant amalgaviruses are monopartite, double-stranded RNA genome containing viruses, capable of vertical transmission through seeds. An attempt to revisit the plant transcriptome assembled contigs for amalgaviral sequences identified 40 putative novel amalgaviruses in 35 plant species, nearly doubling the number of known plant amalgaviruses. Of the...

Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) is an ornamental flowering crop of the Amaryllidaceae family. Tuberose mild mosaic virus (TuMMV) and tuberose mild mottle virus (TuMMoV), members of the genus Potyvirus, are ubiquitously distributed in most tuberose growing countries worldwide with low biological incidence. Here, we report the first coding-complete ge...

Among the grapevine viral diseases, grapevine leafroll disease (GLD) complex is widespread and causes huge economic losses worldwide. The disease is incited by several viruses referred as grapevine leafroll-associated viruses (GLRaVs), either individually or in combinations. Conventional ELISA and real-time PCR assays have shown the seasonal fuct...

The present report communicates the first full genome sequencing of the Garlic virus X from northern India. The total genome size of Garlic virus X (MK503771) reported in this study is 8458 bp ssRNA. The full genome sequence analysis showed the close relationship of Garlic virus X from India to that of from China, Korea, Australia and Spain. The fu...

In November- December, 2016–2017 Bur cucumber (Sicyos angulatus) plants samples showing severe symptom of yellowing, mosaic and leaf curling were collected from Horticulture research centre (HRC), Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut. Polymerase chain reaction using coat protein gene specific primer (ToLCVAV1F a...

The RNA viruses are marked by high genetic diversity, which allows them to quickly adapt to new and resistant hosts. The pathogenic turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) infects Brassicaceae plant species all over the world. Aim: To study the evolution and host expansion of a TuMV for the first time in India using molecular population genetic framework. Ma...

Closteroviruses are positive sense single-stranded RNA genome-containing plant viruses with narrow natural host range and wide distribution. In the present study, a putative novel closterovirus, Triticum polonicum closterovirus (TriPCV) was identified in the transcriptome assembled contigs of dwarf polish wheat available in public domain. The genom...

Symptoms of bunchy top, little leaf, leaf chlorosis with chlorotic streaks, leaf necrosis and stunted growth were noticed in two banana cultivars, Champa and Sabri, in five districts of Tripura during 2019–2020. Symptomatic banana leaf samples was processed for association and identification of phytoplasma and viruses. Aster yellows phytoplasma (16...

Policy Paper on 'Certification of Quality Planting Material of Clonally Propagated Fruit Crops For Promoting Agricultural Diversification' by NAAS, India (Convener: Dr. V.K. Baranwal)

Secoviruses are mono-/bi-partite plant-infecting RNA viruses that cause economically important diseases in plants. In the present study, nine secoviruses tentatively named as Ananas comosus secovirus (AcSV), Artocarpus altilis secovirus (AaSV), Boehmeria nivea secovirus (BnSV), Gynostemma pentaphyllum secovirus (GpSV), Orobanche cernua secovirus (O...

In India, cucurbit aphid-borne yellows virus, a cucurbit-infecting polerovirus, is emerging in the recent past with respect to its occurrence on different crops and geographical locations. This emphasized the need for an investigation to search for the possible occurrence of the other related species Polerovirus. In this view, different cucurbit ho...

Poster Presentation "Viruses 2022—At the Leading Edge of Virology Research". "A simplified mPCR assay for simultaneous detection of six viruses infecting chilli species in India and its application in field diagnosis". Organized by @VirusesMDPI 🙏🙏 #PSII_Devi_sciforum-058249.

Thrips cause considerable economic losses to a wide range of food, feed, and forest crops. They also transmit several plant viruses. Being cryptic, it is often difficult to distinguish thrips species in crops and large consignments by conventional methods. Melon thrips (Thrips palmi Karny, Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is an invasive insect pest of vege...

Transcriptome datasets available in public domain serve as valuable resource for identification and characterization of novel viral genomes. Poleroviruses are economically important plant-infecting RNA viruses belonging to the family Solemoviridae. In the present study, we explored the plant transcriptomes available in public domain and identified...

Many viruses have been found associated with apple mosaic disease in different parts of the world. In order to reveal and characterize the viruses and viroids in symptomatic apple plants, next-generation sequencing (RNA seq.) of rRNA-depleted total RNA using Illumina Hiseq2500 was applied to two cultivars, Oregon Spur and Golden Delicious, with sym...

During 2020–2021, carrot plants with mild yellow mottling, little leaf and leaf curl symptoms at Experimental field of Division of Vegetable Sciences, IARI, New Delhi were observed. Electron microscopy of negatively stained leaf dip preparation showed flexuous filamentous particles measuring 750 × 12 nm. Samples were subjected to DAC-ELISA and ISEM...

Thrips palmi (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is the predominant tospovirus vector in Asia-Pacific region. It transmits economically damaging groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV, family Tospoviridae) in a persistent propagative manner. Thrips serve as the alternate host and virus reservoirs making tospovirus management very challenging. Insecticides and ho...

During January 2021, mild mosaic-related symptoms caused by a group of viruses were observed on the leaves of garlic cultivar Yamuna Safed-3 (G-282). The electron microscopy of infected leaves revealed the presence of filamentous shape virus ranging 700 to 800 nm in size. To identify the virus particles, total RNA of the symptomatic leaf samples we...

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) plants exhibiting mosaics, deformation, and yellow stripes symptoms were identified in Meerut City, Uttar Pradesh, India. To investigate the viruses in the garlic samples, the method of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) was used. Complete genome of the garlic virus E (GarV-E) isolate (NCBI accession No. MW925710) was retri...

Spruce dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium sichuanense) is an important vascular parasite of spruce. In this study of the virome of A. sichuanense parasitizing Picea crassifolia using public domain RNA-seq datasets, potential coding-complete genomes or segments of seven putative novel RNA viruses (Arceuthobium sichuanense-associated virus 1–7: ASaV1–7) w...

The major viruses infecting apple throughout the world including India are apple mosaic virus (ApMV), apple stem pitting virus (ASPV), apple stem grooving virus (ASGV), apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV) and recently a new virus apple necrotic mosaic virus (ApNMV) was reported from mosaic affected apple cultivars in India. The aim of the prese...

Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata), a member of the family Cucurbitaceae, is widely cultivated throughout the world including India. During August 2020 to January 2021, stunted pumpkin plants (cv. Pusa Vishwas), showing chlorotic patches, mosaic, and vein banding on leaves (e-Xtra Fig.1), were observed in the experimental fields of the Indian Agricultura...

Orchid family is the largest plant family which consists of a diverse group of flowering plants, with blooms that are often colorful and fragrant. Orchids are commercially traded as ornamental plants, medicinal products, and food. Climates allows to grow most of the climatic environment like humid, subtropical or moderate climates allows to grow mo...

Transcriptome datasets available in public domain serve as valuable resource for identification and characterization of novel viral genomes. Poleroviruses are economically important plant-infecting RNA viruses belonging to the family Luteoviridae. In the present study, we explored the plant transcriptomes available in public domain and identified f...

Amaryllis plants showing the chlorotic stripes and yellowing of the leaves were collected. Electron microscopy of the infected plants revealed flexuous filamentous particles and disease incidence was recorded up to 64%. The presence of virus was confirmed using potyvirus genus and species-specific primers using Reverse transcription PCR. Blastn ana...

During a survey (2018), 44 orchid samples collected from Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal. The samples were examined under electron microscope (EM) followed by DAC-ELISA and RT-PCR assays were performed. Electron microscopy showed the presence of rigid rods (300 × 18 nm), flexuous rods (475 nm × 13 nm and 800 nm × 12 nm), bacilliform or b...

Dragon fruit (Hylocereus spp.) is an important fruit crop for its high nutrition and profitability grown in India and many other countries. Dragon fruit stem samples exhibiting chlorosis and mottling symptoms, collected from Sangareddy district of Telangana, India revealed a flexuous rod-shaped virus with a length of ~ 600 nm in electron microscopi...

Garlic virus A (GarV-A) severely damages and reduces the yield of economically important garlic crop worldwide. Here, we present the first comprehensive view of GarV-A infecting Yamuna Safed-3 (G282) of garlic (Allium sativumL.) variety from India at the complete genome sequence level. RNA-seq was performed on an Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform to obt...

Onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV) belonging to the genus Potyvirus, family Potyviridae, is one of the widely distributed viruses of Allium species worldwide. It causes dwarfing, yellow striping, crinkling and flaccidity of the leaves of onion and garlic. To see the occurrence and incidence of OYDV on Allium crop, an attempt was made to develop antibo...

Grapevine rupestris stem pitting-associated virus (GRSPaV) is a member of the genus Foveavirus in the family Betaflexiviridae exhibiting high genetic variability. In the present study, a total of eleven full length coat protein gene sequences of GRSPaV were characterized from wine grape cultivars grown in the state of Maharashtra (Nashik and Pune)...

Citrus greening or Huanglongbing (HLB) disease is an important biotic constraint in citrus production worldwide including India. Characteristic symptoms of HLB such as yellowing of leaf veins and adjacent tissues, followed by premature defoliation and dieback of twigs were observed in the 4–6 years old Kinnow mandarin orchard during 2017–2018 in We...

Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as ‘citrus greening’, is an extremely destructive disease of citrus worldwide. HLB is associated with three species of the fastidious proteobacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CaLas), Ca. L. africanus and Ca. L. americanus with CaLas being the most widely distributed around the world and the only species de...

Elettaria cardamomum (small cardamom) is an important spice crop native to south India. In the present study, we attempted to unveil the viral spectrum of small cardamom, which still remains less explored, using the public domain transcriptome datasets. Two putative novel viruses tentatively named as cardamom virus X (CdVX) and cardamom polerovirus...

The genomes of three putative novel viruses, tentatively named "Bacopa monnieri virus 1" (BmV1), "Bacopa monnieri virus 2" (BmV2), and "Bacopa monnieri virus 3" (BmV3) were identified in the transcriptome dataset of a medicinally important herb – water hyssop (Bacopa monnieri (L.) Wettst.). The BmV1 and BmV2 genomes resemble those of plant rhabdovi...

Three viruses belonging to different plant virus genera were found associated with Phalaenopsis plants showing symptoms of mild chlorotic spots, mild mosaic and dark green islands with light green depressions. Symptomatic and non-symptomatic plant samples were collected from the experimental farm of National Research Centre of Orchids, Pakyong Sikk...

Symptoms like bright yellowing, puckering of the leaf, vein banding, and vein thickening were observed on different cucurbit hosts at the experimental farm of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during Kharif 2019. Leaf-dip electron microscopy of the symptomatic leaves revealed the association of isometric virus particles measuring ~...

An investigation was carried out to identify and characterize the phytoplasma and viruses associated with the chickpea varieties showing severe stunting, leaf reddening, yellowing and phyllody symptoms during the summer season of 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 in eight states of India. The average disease incidence was recorded from 3 to 32% in different...

Viruses are abundant entities that infect almost every living organism. In recent years, Next Generation Sequencing coupled with bioinformatic analyses is widely adopted for identification of known and unknown viruses in a plant sample. In the present study, nine putative novel viruses were discovered from public domain transcriptome datasets of fi...

Citrus greening disease or huanglongbing (HLB) caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) limits citrus production worldwide. CLas is transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) in a persistent-propagative manner. Understanding the molecular interaction between CLas and ACP and interrupting the int...

Leaf crinkle disease is one of the important diseases which causes considerable yield loss in urdbean (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper). Though the disease is considered to be caused by viral pathogen, its etiological agent has not been characterized yet. In the present study, rate of disease transmission has been studied using the seeds collected from mec...

Onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV) is an important virus affecting Allium species like onion and garlic worldwide. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays are two most commonly used assays for the detection of OYDV but the sensitivity of ELISA is less than that of RT-PCR. PCR based...

Antiviral proteins (AVPs) from plants possess multiple activities, such as N-glycosidase, RNase, DNase enzymatic activity, and induce pathogenesis-related proteins, salicylic acid, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase. The N-glycosidase activity releases the adenine residues from sarcin/ricin (S/R) loop of large subunit of ribosomes and i...