Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) is a major constraint to potato production in North Africa. Serological (sandwich and cocktail ELISA) and molecular (RT‐PCR) tests were used to detect PLRV in 131 potato samples collected in different areas of Tunisia. RT‐PCR proved to be usable as a routine diagnostic test for epidemiological purposes, being more sensitive and reliable, and less time‐consuming, than serological tests. One RT‐PCR‐amplified portion of ORF3 (336 nt) was cloned and sequenced, and used for molecular characterization of Tunisian PLRV isolates. These showed high sequence identity with PLRV retrieved from GenBank.

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