Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

Seed transmission of Citrus psorosis virus (CPsV) was investigated in mandarin cv. ‘Grosso di Puglia’ and in the Egyptian sour orange cv. ‘Baladi’. Seeds collected from infected mandarin trees were subdivided into two lots, one of which was exposed to a hot water treatment (10 min at 52°C) followed by a fungicide treatment before testing by DASI-ELISA. In non-treated seeds, CPsV antigen was detected in seed coats (56.0% mean positive samples) and peeled seeds (7.5% mean positive samples). Detection rates were lower in treated seeds, i.e. an average of 16.0% positive seed coat samples and 3.0% positive peeled seed samples. None of 690 ‘Grosso di Puglia’ mandarin and 202 ‘Baladi’ sour orange seedlings obtained from treated and untreated seeds reacted positively in ELISA and no psorosis symptoms were observed in glasshouse-grown seedlings, nor were expressed by Dweet tangor grafted on 50 of these seedlings.