Resumen
- The CEVd viroid is the causal agent of citrus exocortis (Semancik and Weathers, 1975), which limits productivity, quality of the fruit, and the useful life of the trees (Duran Vila et al., 2000, Perez et al., 2008); it is manifested with the appearance of vertical grooves, peeling of the bark on the rootstock, yellow spots on the tender shoots, and stunting. These symptoms have been reported on Poncirus trifoliate; on hybrids of the citrange group, like (Citrus sinensis x Poncirus trifoliata); and on some varieties of acid lime (Citrus latifolia), and lemons (Citrus limon) (Bani, 2009). For l diagnosis, biological methods are used based on symptom expression in indicator plants (Etrog citron Arizona 861 S1 [Citrus medica]) and molecular methods with analysis of nucleic acids (Bernad et al., 2006 and Murcia et al., 2009). The biological method is highly sensitive and requires an infrastructure that guarantees high temperatures between 27 and 32 °C and incubation periods from 3 to 9 months for expression of symptoms (Duran-Vila, 1993). This work validated a methodology for the biological diagnosis of CEVd in mother plants of Tahiti acid lime (Citrus latifolia) in nurseries of Cundinamarca, Santander, Tolima, and Eje Cafetero (coffee region) in Colombia