Archivio Journal of Plant Pathology

Abstract:

Field surveys were carried out in the major stone fruit growing areas of eastern Algeria to assess the sanitary status of stone fruits. A total of 454 samples from peach, apricot, almond, sweet and sour cherry, plum and myrobalan were tested by ELISA or RT-PCR for the presence of Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV), Prune dwarf virus (PDV), Apple mosaic virus (ApMV), Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV) Apricot latent virus (ApLV), Cherry virus A (CVA), Cherry green ring mottle virus (CGRMV), and Plum bark necrosis stem pitting-associated virus (PBNSPaV). The overall average infection level was 10.4%. The most frequent virus was PNRSV (56.8%), followed by PDV (27.2%) and ApMV (22.7%). The most infected species was cherry (21.9%) and the less almond (4.4%). ACLSV, ApLV, CVA, CGRMV and PBNSPaV were not detected. Of 531 samples tested for the presence of viroids by tissueprint hybridization, 28 (5.2%) were infected. Peach latent mosaic viroid (PLMVd) and Hop stunt viroid (HSVd) were detected in 15 and 13 samples, respectively. This is the first large-scale study on viruses and viroids of stone fruits in Algeria and reports for the first time the presence of HSVd in the country.