Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) has a diverse range of positive characteristics including high yield per unit area, nutritional value, and resistance to several production stresses. However, yield of sweetpotato is affected by several pathogens. One of these is the sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV), a major component of the sweet potato virus disease, SPVD combined with the sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus, SPCSV. SPFMV has long been recognized to occur wherever sweetpotatoes are grown. SPFMV, a type member of the potyviruses, is transmitted by several genera of aphids including the cotton aphid (Aphis gossypii) and the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) in a non-persistent manner. Symptoms vary with regard to the cultivated variety and environmental factors that often makes identification difficult. Serological methods are widely used in the detection of viral infection.

Recently, advances in recombinant DNA technology, coupled with its ease to manipulate and its rapid growing rate in a less expensive media had established Escherichia coli (E. coli) as a leading host organism to produce high protein quantities of scientific interest. One of these interests is the expression of proteins as an antigen for antibody production.