Garlic generally becomes coinfected with several types of viruses belonging to the Potyvirus, Carlavirus, and Allexivirus genera. These viruses produce characteristically similar symptoms, they cannot be easily identified by electron microscopy (EM) or immunological detection methods, and they are currently widespread around the world, thereby affecting crop yields and crop quality adversely. For the early and reliable detection of garlic viruses, virus-specific sets of primers, including species-specific and genus-specific primers were designed. To effectively detect the twelve different types of garlic viruses, primer mixtures were tested and divided into two independent sets for multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The multiplex PCR assays were able to detect specific targets up to the similar dilution series with monoplex reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. Seventy-two field samples collected by the Gyeongbuk Agricultural Technology Administration were analyzed by multiplex RT-PCR. All seventy two samples were infected with at least one virus, and the coinfection rate was 78%. We conclude that the simultaneous detection system developed in this study can effectively detect and differentiate mixed viral infections in garlic.

In 2005, a survey was conducted to identify virus diseases on victory onion, Allium victorialis var. platyphyllum grown in Ulleung island located in the East Sea. A total of 61 samples were collected from victory onion in the neighborhood of Seonginbong. The identification of viruses from the samples were carried out by electron microscopy and RT-PCR using primers species specific to GCLV, LYSV, SLV, OYDV and genus specific to Allexivirus, respectively. From sixty-one samples, filamentous rod particles (600-900 nm) were detected from four victory onion samples in EM, three samples containing SLV and one sample containing both SLV and Allexivirus in RT-PCR analysis, respectively. Victory onions naturally infected by the viruses were asymptomatic apparently. The viruses detected by RT-PCR were further characterized by the nucleotide sequence analysis of the coat protein region. Three isolates of SLV showed approximately 99% identities in the nucleotide and amino acid sequences, suggesting that they were likely to be the same strain. On the other hand, they showed approximately 75.7~83.7% identities in the nucleotide and 89.2~97.0% in amino acid sequences compared with the previously reported SLV isolates in Allium. The CP gene of the Allexivirus showed approximately 99.2% nucleotide identities and 98.8% amino acid identities with Garlic virus A. However, there was relatively low homology ranging from 60.6% to 81.5% compared with other Allexiviruses