Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

Garlic (Allium sativum) can be infected by many viruses, in- cluding members of the genus Allexivirus (Adams et al., 2011). A virus survey was conducted in eleven garlic fields located in dif- ferent regions of Poland. Leaf and bulb samples from 80 plants showing mosaic, deformation and yellow stripes during the 2011- 2012 growing season were tested by DAS-ELISA using antibod- ies to Garlic virus A (GarV-A), Garlic virus B (GarV-B) and Gar- lic virus C (GarV-C) supplied by the Leibniz Institute DSMZ- German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (Braun- schweig, Germany). Results indicated that 38 samples (47.5%) were infected with GarV-A, 49 samples (61.3%) with GarV-B and 14 samples (17.5%) with GarV-C. RT-PCR was used to con- firm the occurrence of the three viruses in symptomatic garlic with total RNA extracted from the leaves of 20 DAS-ELISA-posi- tive and five negative samples using the SpectrumTM plant total RNA kit (Sigma, USA), the Titan one tube RT-PCR system (Roche, Switzerland) and primer pairs designed in the conserved region of ORF5 (coat protein) and ORF6 (nucleic acid binding protein) of GarV-A (ACPF/ACPR 5’-ATGTCGAATC- CAACTCAGTCG-3’ and 5’-AGACCATGTTGGTGGCGCG- 3’), GarV-B (BCPF/BCPR 5’-TGACGGGCAAACAGCA- GAATAA-3’ and 5’-ATATAGCTTAGCGGGTCCTTC-3’) and GarV-C (CCPF/CCPR 5’-TTGCTACCACAATGGTTCCTC-3’ and 5’-TACTGGCACGAGTTGGGAAT-3’). Products of the ex- pected size (444 bp for GarV-A, 576 bp for GarV-B and 679 bp for GarV-C) were amplified only from the DAS-ELISA-positive samples. To our knowledge, this is the first report of GarV-A, GarV-B and GarV-C in garlic in Poland.