Sugarcane mosaic is caused by the Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) and the Sorghum mosaic virus (SrMV), and these two viruses belong to the genus Potyvirus and to the family Potyviridae. Sugarcane streak mosaic is caused by the Sugarcane streak mosaic virus (SCSMV), an unclassified member of the same virus family. Several strains have been described for each of these viruses, and several reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) protocols were developed for molecular diagnosis of SCMV, SrMV and SCSMV. These protocols are generally based on the virus coat protein sequence. Because this sequence is often variable, the effectiveness of the RT-PCR assays to diagnose all isolates/strains of the pathogen needs to be tested. We therefore applied several RT-PCR assays to a collection of isolates of SCMV, SrMV and SCSMV. The protocol of Yang and Mirkov (1997), modified by Alegria and co-workers (2003), allowed us to detect SCMV strains A, B, D and E, but also strains from Africa not yet described. This protocol failed, however, to detect SCMV in sugarcane from China showing mosaic symptoms. A phylogenetic study of sugarcane and maize isolates of SCMV by Chen and co-workers (2002) previously showed that isolates from sugarcane from China are genetically closer to Chinese and European SCMV isolates from maize than to SCMV isolates from sugarcane in Australia, South Africa and the USA. Additionally, we performed a comparison of published sequences of SCMV which showed that RT-PCR primers of Yang and Mirkov (1997) are not efficient for diagnosis of SCMV isolates from maize. Primers oligo1n and oligo2n for potyviruses of Poaceae developed by Marie-Jeanne and co-workers (2000) allowed us, however, to detect all strains of SCMV, including the SCMV isolates from China not previously detected. Primers oligo1n and oligo2n also proved to be very efficient in the diagnosis of SrMV. These primers do not distinguish between SCMV and SrMV, but are very useful for simultaneous d