PRELIMINARY CHARACTERIZATION OF A NORTH AMERICAN ISOLATE OF PLUM POX VIRUS FROM NATURALLY INFECTED PEACH AND PLUM ORCHARDS IN PENNSYLVANIA, USA

A Plum pox virus isolate (PPV) was identified infecting peach (Prunus persica) and plum (P. domestica) orchards in Adams Co., Pennsylvania (USA), in 1999. To verify PPV infection in overwintering trees and to characterize the virus isolates involved in the outbreak, samples were analyzed by combinations of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, and budwood from field-infected P. persica cv Encore and P. domestica was grafted onto the woody indicator species P. tomentosa and P. persica cv GF305. Diagnostic symptoms of PPV infection in grafted tissues were evident on both species in six weeks and ELISA results were positive for PPV, confirming early survey results from the previous season.
Twenty-one young peach trees from infected orchards were transplanted into a pathogen containment facility for indepth study of virus epidemiology.
Immunotrapping and antibody decoration with PPV polyclonal antiserum revealed flexuous rods (730 X 13 nm) in leaf extracts from infected plum leaves growing on the indicator plants.
Attempts to transmit PPV from tissues from field infected stone fruit trees or from infected woody indicator tissues by mechanical inoculations and aphid vectors were successful only from one field-infected source.

XVIII International Symposium on Virus and Virus-like Diseases of Temperate Fruit Crops – Top Fruit Diseases

V.D. Damsteegt, A.L. Stone, D.G. Luster, L. Levy, F.E. Gildow, R. Welliver

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.550.21