Rapid, Sensitive and Simultaneous Detection of Two Wheat RNA Viruses Using Reverse Transcription Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RT-RPA)

Abstract

In China, wheat yellow mosaic disease is mostly caused by wheat yellow mosaic virus (WYMV) and Chinese wheat mosaic virus (CWMV). If wheat is co-infected with these two viruses, it can cause severe yellow mosaic symptoms and yield losses. Early detection of viruses is crucial for preventing disease in the field. In this study, we optimized a sensitive, specific reverse transcription recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) detection method for two viruses, WYMV and CWMV. Two sets of primers were designed based on the capsid protein (CP)-encoding genes of the two viruses, and the reaction conditions were determined. The RT-RPA method, which amplified the target amplicon by a handheld reaction mixture for 20 min, was more sensitive than PCR-CP in the detection of WYMV. Finally, the RT-RPA method was performed on 110 randomly selected field samples, demonstrating its applicability to samples from different regions and specificity for co-infected samples. This study not only describes an improved method for detecting WYMV and CWMV using RT-RPA but also demonstrates the potential of this method, which could be applied under field conditions.