Objective:
Develop sensitive, reliable methods for the detection and identification of plant viruses and viroids utilizing microarray techniques. Develop appropriate extraction and amplification methods suitable for application to diverse plant types. Develop appropriate data analysis techniques to allow development of a robust system for virus identification and discrimination between single and mixed infections.

Approach:
Develop multiple oligonucleotides representing conserved sequences for each recognized taxonomic grouping of plant viruses and viroids. Develop microarrays composed of such ologonucleotides for the detection and identification of viruses and viroids, and data analysis methods for reproducible analysis of results. Develop reagents, sampling procedures and protocols for the extraction amplification and labeling of nucleic acids from diverse plant types.