3. Results3.1. Specificity and compatibility of primer pairsPrimer pairs designed for ASPV and ACLSV were tested inuniplex RT-PCR by using the RNA templates extracted indi-vidually from 15 in vitro plants of a P. communis line, whichwere positive to those viruses. The amplification efficiency andspecificity of those primer pairs were evaluated by calculatingthe rates of positive plants and visualizing the specific bands.Results showed that the amplification efficiencies of testedprimer pairs differed greatly in the detection of each virus.Generally, the primer pair ASPV247-F/ASPV247-R gave highamplification efficiency and specificity for ASPV. Three ACLSVprimer pairs ACLSV400-F/ACLSV400-R, ACLSV170-F/ACLSV170-Rand ACLSV-52/ACLSV-53 produced the equal amplificationefficiency and specificity for ACLSV. Sequencing results con-firmed that the amplified products were from targeted viruses.Thereby, those primer pairs ASPV247-F/ASPV247-R for ASPV,and ACLSV400-F/ACLSV400-R, ACLSV170-F/ACLSV170-R andACLSV-52/ACLSV-53 for ACLSV, together with the ASGV-specific primer pair ASGV-U/ASGV-2, were selected for further evaluationin mRT-PCR. Those primer pairs generated PCR products of dif-ferent sizes, which could be easily differentiated by agarose gelelectrophoresis.