Factors influencing ELISA evaluation of transmission of pea seed-borne mosaic virus in infected pea seed: seed-group size and seed decortication

A technique is described using ELISA to detect the virus in pea seed lots; the percentage of embryos which were ELISA-positive was correlated with the percentage of seed transmission. Seed coat removal was necessary to prevent over-estimation of the percentage of embryos infected due to the extraction of non-transmissible virus from the seed coats. The maximum number of healthy embryos which allowed one infected embryo to be detected among them varied among 2 cultivars and 10 accessions being 100 for cv. Amino and 60 for cv. Arpad; it is recommended that a workable group size limit should be adopted for routine use