ISHS Acta Horticulturae 657: XIX International Symposium on Virus and Virus-like Diseases of Temperate Fruit Crops - Fruit Tree Diseases
IDENTIFICATION AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF PEAR BLISTER CANKER VIROID ISOLATES IN CAMPANIA (SOUTHERN ITALY) |
| Authors: | M. Malfitano, M. Barone, E. Ragozzino, D. Alioto, R. Flores |
| Keywords: | viroids, PBCVd, pear |
| Abstract:
Pear blister canker disease is a bark disorder induced by Pear blister canker viroid (PBCVd), a member of genus Apsacaviroid within family Pospiviroidae, on the pear indicators ‘A 20’ and ‘Fieud 37’, whereas infections of most commercial pear cultivars are latent. Only a few isolates of this viroid have been characterized so far. To evaluate the presence and spread of PBCVd in Campania (Southern Italy), fifty sources of different pear cultivars were collected in the summer of 2002 and analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and molecular hybridization with a PBCVd-specific riboprobe. The results of this analysis revealed that 10% of the tested trees were infected, with PBCVd being detected on cultivars ‘Coscia’ and ‘Conference’. RT-PCR amplification and sequencing revealed in isolate O3 of cultivar ‘Coscia’ 18 polymorphic positions when compared with the standard reference sequence of PBVCd isolate P2098T, 12 of which previously unreported. Ten of these new changes were also found in isolate DF9 of cultivar ‘Conference’. Isolates G29, G30 and G31 of cultivar ‘Coscia’ had essentially the same sequence, differing only in a single nucleotide substitution. | |
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