Detection of bean yellow mosaic virus in gladioli corms by the polymerase chain reaction

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method readily detected bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) in gladioli leaves, but in initial tests PCR did not detect virus in corm tissue. Extracts of RN A from corm tissue were shown to inhibit the amplification of viral sequences when added to a PCR reaction. An additional purification step for the RNA extracts using a Sephadex G-50 column eliminated the inhibitory effect and enabled PCR to amplify and detect viral RNA in corm tissue preparations.