First Report in Argentina of Plum pox virus Causing Sharka Disease in Prunus

Abstract

Sharka disease, caused by Plum pox virus (PPV), is probably the most important disease of stone fruits crops worldwide because of tremendous yield losses from infected trees (1). During November 2004, symptoms resembling sharka disease were observed in a plum and apricot orchard consisting of 5,000 trees in Pocito, San Juan Province, Argentina. Apricot leaves showed chlorotic spots while plum leaves showed chlorotic rings, spots, and irregular edges. Plum fruits were deformed and much smaller than those from symptomless trees. Samples collected from 70 symptomatic trees were tested using double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays with a polyclonal antiserum anti-PPV from BIOREBA (Reinach BL1, Switzerland), and immunosorbent electron microscopy with a polyclonal antiserum from our laboratory made against a recombinant PPV capsid protein (CP). The samples were also tested using double-antibody sandwich indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using the REAL kit (Durviz, Valencia, Spain) with two different monoclonal antibodies including Mab 5b that recognizes all strains of PPV and Mab 4DG5 that is specific for PPV strain D. Samples were positive with both antibodies in 80% of the cases. Leaf extracts from symptomatic plum samples were also analyzed by immuno-capture reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. A 1,209-bp fragment was amplified with specific primers that anneal at the 5′ end of the coat protein coding region and the viral 3′ end poly A tail. The amplified fragment was cloned and the nucleotide sequence was determined for two of the resulting clones (Gen-Bank Accession Nos. DQ299537 and DQ299538). The sequences were 98% identical with the PPV-strain D from the United States (GenBank Accession No. AF360579) and Germany (GenBank Accession No. X81081). The restriction sites for AluI and RsaI, previously described (2) as typical for the PPV-D strain, were present in the expected positions. To our knowledge, this is the first report of PPV-D in Argentina. Reference: (1) M. Németh. Virus, Mycoplasma, and Rickettsia Disease of Fruit Trees. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 1986. (2) T. Wetzel et al. J. Virol. Methods 33:355, 1991.

Sharka: The Past, The Present and The Future

“…In Kazakhstan, PPV was firstly detected on plum and apricot trees in 2004 [192]. In 2005, plum pox virus has been found on apricot trees in China (Hunan Province of China, plants with typical yellow rings and diffused chlorotic spots) [193], in 2006, sharka disease in Prunus species was demonstrated in Argentina [194] and Pakistan [195]. One of the latest reports indicates detection of PPV in commercial Japanese apricot trees in Tokyo [196].…”

Plum Pox Virus in Japanese Plum from Argentina: Serological Detection and Molecular Characterization of an Isolate from cv. Red Beauty

“…In Argentina, PPV was detected in a Japanese plum orchard in Pocito, San Juan, in 2004 (Dal Zotto et al. ; Ortego et al. ) and the National Service of Plant Health (SENASA) declared the area within a 1000 m radius from the orchard a quarantine zone (Senasa Resolution Nº 24/05) (SENASA ).…”

Investigation on the incidence of Plum pox virus in fruit nurseries of the Czech Republic

“…It has also been found by the end of the 20 th century in South America -Chile (Acuňa 1993), Argentina (Dal Zotto et al 2006), and in North America -USA (Levy et al 2000), Canada (Thompson et al 2001). The presence of PPV was proved around the Mediterranean basin in North Africa and Near and Middle East Asia (Dunéz 1987;Roy & Smith 1994).…”