As a member of Convolvulaceae family, sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an important crop for food security. As one of the top three vegetable crops grown in Mississippi, one major limitation to sweetpotato production is the cumulative effect of virus infection leading to cultivar decline and yield losses. To produce virus-tested sweetpotato seedlings, we developed meristem-tip culture technology combined with heat treatment to provide farmers with healthy propagating materials that are free of detectable viruses. In this study, totally 30 lines of sweetpotato have been collected in Mississippi and beyond. The plants were first examined with the infection of five of the most prevalent viruses by using nucleic acid-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) techniques, which showed high sensitivity and confirmation at the genomic level of viral species and strains. Primers targeting to conserved regions of the know sweetpotato viruses were used for this nucleic acid based detection. The effective protocols for sweetpotato viral detection and viral removal were well developed in this study. The optimized protocols have been used for the purpose of viral detection and eradicating from elite sweetpotato lines in Mississippi. Virus-free planting material has been propagated in Agriculture Research Station of Alcorn State University for performance evaluation.
