ISHS Acta Horticulturae 715: VIII International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture
A VIRUS ASSOCIATED WITH BLUEBERRY FRUIT DROP DISEASE |
| Authors: | R.R. Martin, I.E. Tzanetakis, M. Sweeney, L. Wegener |
| Keywords: | Fruit Drop, ´Bluecrop´, dsRNA, virus, detection |
| Abstract:
During the past few years a fruit drop symptom has been observed in several blueberry fields in Oregon, Washington and B.C. The plants flower normally, though the young leaves and flowers have a transient red coloration that is absent in healthy plants. The fruit develops to 3-5 mm in diameter and then aborts so that affected bushes mature virtually no fruit. The incidence within fields increases year to year suggesting that a pathogen is involved. Virus purification and mechanical transmissions to herbaceous hosts has been unsuccessful. Only one of more than 40 attempts at dsRNA purification was successful. Thus far, approximately 1700 nucleotides of the dsRNA template have been sequenced and two sets of primers for detection were developed. In RT-PCR assays, amplicons were obtained from symptomatic bushes with both sets of primers but not from asymptomatic bushes. The sequence obtained shows homology with fungal and vertebrate rather than plant viruses. The most closely related virus in a BLAST search was a Totivirus from Zygosaccharomyces. The possibility of a systemic virus-infected fungal pathogen can not be ruled out at this time. | |
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