Tobacco streak virus (TSV, genus Ilarvirus family Bromoviridae) is known to cause stem necrosis disease (SND) in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) since 2000 in Southern India. The TSV isolate infecting groundnut so far has not been characterized based on the complete genome sequence. In this study, TSV was isolated from a naturally infecting groundnut plant in Kadiri, the hot-spot of the SND in southern India. During the Kharif season of 2014, groundnut plants in an experimental field were affected with chlorosis and necrosis in leaf, stem and buds. The cent percent of the 48 samples with these symptoms collected from the field tested positive for TSV in ELISA samples in this context. One isolate, GN-Kad was established from a single lesion on cowpea cv. C-152 through successive sap inoculation. Cloning and sequencing of coat protein gene (717 nucleotides) of the isolate showed high sequence identity (98-99%) with the TSV isolates reported from different crops in India. The isolate produced local necrotic rings or veinal necrosis following sap inoculation to cowpea (cultivars C-152, Pusa Komal, Pusa Sukomal and Krishi Kanchan), French bean and sunflower; whereas, it produced systemic chlorotic mottling symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana. The three segments of the virus genome (RNA 1, RNA 2 and RNA 3) contained 3523, 2903 and 2232 nucleotides, respectively. The overall genome sequence (8639 nt) of the present isolate shared 77-99% of nucleotide sequence identity with that of the other seven isolates reported from Australia, India and USA. The GN-Kad shared very close phylogenetic relationship with the okra and pumpkin isolates reported from India. The present report is the first comprehensive study of the molecular characterization of TSV associated with the stem necrosis disease of groundnut.Keywords Stem necrosis disease Á Groundnut Á Tobacco streak virus Á Complete genome Á India Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

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Matrix ranking is an important PRA tool to assess and study the preferences of farmers for a particular technology over others, with respect to crop or animal based technologies. The preferences and criteria for the same are also studied in the process. The following study gives a first-hand idea of farmers' relative preferences for different varieties of rice, mustard, tomato, chilli, garden pea, fish and lac hosts. The results of the matrix ranking for different varieties of rice revealed that, the variety "Arize 6444" was the most preferred one followed by "Abhishek". "Pusa Mahak" was the leading variety of mustard followed by Pusa Bold. Swarna Sampada is more preferred tomato variety among the farmers. Among fish, "Rohu" was widely preferred by the respondents due to its higher yield, more market demand, resistance to water quality and higher market price.

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