Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.4, 147-158 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mp 147 Review Article Open Access A Review of Molecular Diagnostic Techniques for Potato Virus Detection Jiamin Wang, Jiong Fu Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory of Crop Molecular Breeding, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding author: jiong.fu@hitar.org Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.4 doi: 10.5376/mp.2025.16.0016 Received: 18 May, 2025 Accepted: 20 Jun., 2025 Published: 01 Jul., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Wang and Fu, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Wang J.M., and Fu J., 2025, A review of molecular diagnostic techniques for potato virus detection, Molecular Pathogens, 16(4): 147-158 (doi: 10.5376/mp.2025.16.0016) Abstract Potatoes are an important food and cash crop in the world, but viral diseases seriously affect their yield and quality. According to statistics, more than 40 viruses have been found in potatoes, which can lead to a yield loss of up to 50% in early or severe infection. Common potato viruses include Y virus (PVY), X virus (PVX), leaf roll virus (PLRV), A virus (PVA), M virus (PVM), S virus (PVS), and potato spindle tuber virus (PSTVd), etc. They occur widely in the main potato-producing areas of China. This study analyzed the molecular biological basis of potato viruses, as well as the principles and application progress of molecular diagnostic technologies such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR), isothermal amplification, high-throughput sequencing, emerging CRISPR/Cas and digital PCR, nanobiosensing, etc., and compared the sensitivity, specificity and applicable scenarios of each technology. The article also discusses the direction of multiple detection solutions and detection system optimization, and analyzes new achievements in potato virus detection in China and internationally, and looks forward to the future development trend of potato virus molecular diagnostic technology. Keywords Potato virus; Molecular diagnosis; Isothermal amplification; High-throughput sequencing; Rapid on-site detection 1 Introduction Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the fourth largest food crop in the world and plays an important role in ensuring food security. However, various viral diseases are widely distributed around the world and have become one of the main diseases that limit potato production. Viral infection will cause symptoms such as flower and leaves, shrinkage, and rolling leaves of potato plants, and the yield and quality of tubers will decrease. It is estimated that yield loss can reach 30%~50% or even higher in early or severe viral infections (Wu et al., 2013). China is a major potato producer, and the production cuts caused by virus disease cannot be ignored. In the survey of multiple potato-producing areas in China, the average detection rate of PVY is the highest, exceeding 60% in some areas, followed by PVS, PVX, etc. Because the virus can be transmitted through seed potatoes for a long time and leads to "degeneration", viral disease has become one of the important factors that restrict the continuous increase in potato crops. There are many types of potato viruses, and more than 60 types of potato viruses have been reported. PVX belongs to the genus Potexvirus. Infections alone are usually mild, but infection in combination with other viruses can lead to severe leaf rolls and necrosis (Rashid et al., 2021). PLRV belongs to the genus Polerovirus, is a cystos-limiting virus transmitted through aphids. It only invades the phloem, often causing potato rolls and premature aging. PVA, PVM, and PVS belong to the Potyvirus, Carlavirus and Carlavirus respectively, and are also popular in many places around the world. Since potatoes are asexual reproductive crops, these viruses are easily spread and accumulated through seed potatoes, resulting in variety degeneration. Therefore, the rapid and accurate detection of these major potato viruses is crucial to seed potato quality control and disease prevention and control. Traditional field symptom observation and indication plant biological identification has been used for the detection of potato viruses, but it often requires waiting for obvious symptoms to appear and take a long time, which is inefficient in large-scale seed potato testing. Although serological methods such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were widely used in plant virus detection in the last century and had certain
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